The Alpha King's Princess
The Alpha King’s Princess – Chapter 49

I couldn’t believe what he was saying. The rest of his orders drifted through my mind, but I wasn’t paying attention. I was taking notes, but I didn’t know what I would do with them. The packs were mobilizing, sure. They were grumbling a lot about the way Candido was handling everything, but he was also agreeing to marry Sibyl to get Norton to cooperate. When the meeting was over, I left the closet and head back to his office. Moon Shadow was already collecting information from New Moon’s issues as the alpha transferred it and recorded the fallout from the meeting.

But I couldn’t focus.

I sank down onto the cushion of the couch inside Candido’s office at a loss for words or what to do. There wasn’t enough time. There just wasn’t to replace another way out of this. Norton had played a good hand, and Sibyl would be Candido’s wife if I didn’t convince him not to do this. Logic wasn’t working. My emotions might not work either, but I had to try everything I could to make him not do this.

I almost wished that vampires launched their war tomorrow and started with the Red Moon pack’s territory. If they were under attack, then there wouldn’t be time to talk about marriage. Norton would change his tune.

I frowned, considering it. Why hadn’t Norton had more to say about attacks going on in his territory? Red Moon was closer to the border. If there was an easy target, they were it, not New Moon.

Was he hiding it like Francium’s father had, or was he aiding it? It seemed too easy to say he was aiding the issue. It was so obvious that he was involved if no attacks happened in his territory. I made a note to hack Red Moon as well just to be sure. I had already been gathering information on Sibyl and Norton, this would be a small addition to my programs.

I heard Candido getting closer, walking down the hall. He stopped outside, and I felt his presence just outside the door. I felt it like a magnet on my mind, but I resisted giving into the heat and want that seemed just out of my reach. It was different than the way I had felt with Armageddon. When he walked in, I stood up and turned on him. He looked exhausted already as he let out a deep sigh. He looked like he didn’t want to argue, but there was no way he was getting out of it.

“Hedy—”

“I will never be okay with this,” I said.

Candido lifted his head and closed the door behind him. “Am I not king? Your king? Your alpha?”

It was bad form for him to throw that it my face now, after everything I’d said and everything he hadn’t said over the years.

I glared at him. “Are you saying I shouldn’t tell you when you’re being stupid? I didn’t realize you’d become a dictator.”

He flinched and sighed, shaking his head. “You’re confused.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“Don’t tell me what I feel, Candido!”

“What do you know about love, Hedy?” He asked. “About what it would mean for you to be with me? What do you really know?”

I glared at him. “Don’t patronize me, Candido.”

“You came here from an abusive home where your stepmother and sister terrorized and poisoned you, your father abused you and stood by and did nothing.” Candido narrowed his eyes. “Even after you arrived here after I tested you as a child, you stayed her growing up protected in my power. You have no concept of what love is. You’re just clinging to the first bit of kindness you’ve been shown.”

It was a lie. Maybe I clung to Candido for safety, but I knew what I felt was more than just gratitude and an infatuation. He was trying to distract me, trying to distract himself from the truth of the matter.

I wasn’t going to let him get away with it.

“Marrying Sibyl damn sure won’t help anything, and you know it.”

He sighed. “You were eavesdropping. How many times—”

“Sibyl will destroy the pack,” I said. “You don’t even know how terrible she is, or you simply don’t care because of some misguided sense of obligation.”

“We had a deal—”

“What about her end of the f*****g deal?” I shrieked. “You were young and in a vulnerable place. He took advantage of that for his own ends. He’s doing the same thing now by holding the fate of the werewolf world over you.”

His eyes narrowed. “I was not taken advantage of.”

“Now who’s being prideful?” I scoffed. “Now who’s clinging to a bit of kindness and ignoring everything else?”

“What do you expect me to do, Hedy?” He hissed. “You think you understand how much—”

“The Red Moon pack is the second largest pack. They have resources, and political pull, but they don’t have nearly as much of a fighting force as you think they do.”

He frowned drawing back. His mouth shut, and I went on.

“You’re fooled by Norton’s show, but look at the numbers! Look at the land and all the packs around him. Look at Norton himself. Over fifty percent of the inter-pack police are registered to the Full Moon Pack. Only about ten percent is registered to the Red Moon Pack when it should be closer to thirty, and it’s been dwindling for years.”

“… how do you know that, Hedy?”

I rolled my eyes. “I go to school with several members of the pack. They talk.”

It was a lie. I eavesdropped on a lot of meetings and researched every pack as much as possible. The werewolf world, even if we mobilized, we didn’t have nearly as much of a fighting force as we once did.

“Norton’s been losing people to the Full Moon Pack and other packs for years because of his taxes. People are furious about his treatment of the pack.” I thought back to the locker room talk. “His policing force is all funded by the taxes, but he’s not training them well. I wouldn’t even be surprised if his negligence led to New Moon’s issues in some way.”

Candido narrowed his eyes. “Why do you say that?”

Candido narrowed his eyes. “Why do you say that?”

“Now you care what I have to say?”

“Just answer me, Hedy.”

I glared at him. “The town he talked about used to be Red Moon territory, but it’s not anymore.”

Candido’s eyes widened. He rounded the table and opened his laptop, opening his records to scroll through the land distribution records.

“No, it wasn’t.”

I walked around and changed the parameters, going back several more years until I reached the right year when the town was in Red Moon, then I flipped forward, showing it under the list of another, much smaller pack.

“Red Moon has been shrinking, ceding land to smaller packs to build those political ties. Norton isn’t nearly as powerful as he’s making himself out to be.”

He pulled back from his laptop. “Be that as it may. You’re too young to worry about this.”

“Not too young to replace it.”

He stood and took me by my shoulders. “Why can’t you see that this isn’t the life I want for you? I want you to be happy. Carefree, not bogged down with all this and involved in the war.”

“And to hell with what I want?” I asked.

“Hedy—”

“And to hell with the fact that no matter what you do, I am involved? I live here! I’m a werewolf. You think they’ll care that you want me to be uninvolved? They’ll run right through the pack, killing everyone in their paths.”

His eyes turned dark as he seemed to understand the truth.

“Don’t marry Sibyl, Candido,” he said. “You’ll regret it and everyone will suffer for it.”

“You think love is this thing that can fix everything and that’s wonderfully naïve of you, but there are some things that must be done.”

“I will never accept her as queen, Candido,” I said.

“I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”

But he may as well have. Whether he thought this was an effective stalling tactic or not, or if he was hoping that the vampires would strike before he set an official date, I didn’t know.

But it meant nothing. I pulled him around to look at me.

“Promise me you won’t.”

He looked down at me and I saw the moment when he knew I knew he was just stalling.

I pulled away from him. “I know exactly what your silence means.”

“Hedy—”

“No,” I turned away from him. “Don’t look for me. Send my book through a staff member. I don’t want the last time I see you to be the day you’re going to meet Sibyl at the altar and doom us all.”

“You still have to eat,” Candido said. “You can’t avoid me forever.”

I looked back at him. “Watch me.”