Queen Alpha (NYC Mecca Series Book 2)

by Leia Stone

  Good question. My knowledge of the Tuatha de Danann was practically nonexistent, but I had been reading as much as I could about the history of fae from the book Kade had given me. It let me in on a few of their secrets, and after meeting that fae in Astoria Park I had to believe that some of them didn’t want us dead. She had come to warn me, and said she’d be back when she had more information.

  “The Otherworld is apparently divided into two main sections, each of them ruled by a king or queen, and they are each in possession of a treasure … or weapon … which they use to control the mecca and rule their people. They battle among themselves, trying to take the other’s power. The Otherworld is much smaller than Earth, a landmass akin to the size of America. We have met only one side. They call themselves the light fae, which I’m coming to understand is the court of summer. The dark fae are from the court of winter. There are smaller courts within those, the Spring Court and Fall Court. I have no idea of their power, or whether they have weapons also. At the moment it looks as if the dark court is trying to destroy us and the light is our ally. How to tell them apart … I have no idea.”

  “What are these weapons?” one of the councilmen asked, seeming intrigued.

  I shook my head. “We don’t know for sure. The history vaguely suggests that a spear and sword are two of them, but this may not even be true.”

  “Why are they attacking us?” Glenda asked, her voice ringing out, wavering with intensity. “I truly don’t understand what we can offer them. They already have equal mecca power on their side of the veil. Why now? Why kill the Red Queen?”

  Intensity was good. It meant they were finally starting to believe me, to believe it was the fae who killed the Red Queen and not some sort of sneak attack the bears were trying to foist off onto another enemy.

  Before I could answer her, a low voice cut through the room. “The mecca is compromised.” The basement area fell silent and at first I wondered which of the council had spoken, until I realized it was none of them. Finn started to growl low and menacing, and if I had been the stranger in our midst, I’d have been very nervous. My familiar slid his massive body around until it was before me.

  A huge male stepped up out of the shadows and I wondered how long he’d been there. I recognized him straight away: Seamus, the male magic born of our packs. His hair was pure white, like his skin, although he seemed to have a little more color than many of the others. His icy-blue eyes cut through me and a shiver traversed my spine. He was powerful and determined. I could see that in the way he strode across the room.

  “The mecca is visible to my eye now. It was never this way before the Red Queen fell. The balance is no more and the fae will come for the power. They will destroy us all to get it.”

  I didn’t like the way he had crept into our meeting, but magic born had a way of doing that. Ignoring my instinct to reprimand him, I turned back to the council. “Seamus is right, the power is no longer balanced. This is what the light fae told us. She said that the dark now want to rule Earth, and they plan on taking it soon.”

  Returning my gaze to Seamus, I let hard eyes linger on him for a few extra seconds. My power was judging and assessing him. I saw nothing of concern, but I would remain on guard. There was an offness about him. Even Finn felt it.

  My next words were lower, contemplative. “What I don’t understand is why the queen’s death changed the mecca. It was the catalyst for all of this. What was she up to in those days before she died? What did she see or know which caused the Tuatha to send out a hit on her and all the heirs? In the Otherworld, the light and dark battle all the time, but we have never been part of it.”

  “Which tells you…” Torine prompted, seeming to know I had more to say.

  “Which tells me that there may be a weapon on Earth, something the queen figured out in the days before her death, and which somehow the Winter Court also discovered. The Winter Court wants the weapon. They know it could tip the odds in their favor. Maybe the Red Queen used it just before she died, maybe that is why the power is coming to us.”

  Not everything in my theory made perfect sense, but it felt like the right place to start.

  “Have you searched her private stores? Through her papers?” Torine asked me. “You should have started your investigation there.”

  I gritted my teeth just slightly. Did he think I’d just been relaxing and drinking cocktails on the beach since my coronation? I had been pretty busy in the few weeks I’d been queen.

  “It’s next on my to-do list. She had thousands of boxes filled with her personal effects. I’ll begin in the library where she was murdered, and work my way back from there.”

  Seamus strode closer to me and I was again captured by the unique beauty of the magic born. “I would like to help you. I came today because the mecca imbalance can no longer be ignored. Now that I know more, I believe it is magic born who’ll be the most help to you. Especially regarding the fae magic books and a possible weapon.”

  Okay, so he’d been listening since the very beginning. My temper started to get the best of me then. We should not have lax security at a time like this. The council must have agreed. They burst into loud reprimands.

  “You cannot sneak into private meetings! You will be punished for this!”

  “Silence!” I shouted.

  It took a few minutes, and some pushing of my power, but eventually I could be heard again. “I need you to go and find Violet,” I said to Seamus, ignoring the council. “I will deal with your lack of respect later. You do not run this world, that’s my job. But I agree that the magic born will be instrumental in our preparations. You’re going to be on the front line of this war.”

  He bowed his head low, especially for a magic born. “No disrespect intended at all. I just know that what we are told and what is truth are not always the same. I wanted truth this time.”

  Before I could say anything more, he turned and in a flash was gone from the room. Damn magic born.

  Chapter Four

  I am queen. Hear me roar.

  The alphas filed into the room. First were the two who ruled the other boroughs: the current queen heirs Selene and Chelsea. Selene was technically the spare queen, but I liked to think of her as an heir. Still, she was alpha of the Bronx. Chelsea was alpha of Queens.

  Chelsea of the yellow clan had turned sixteen last week, and as was her birthright was now an heir and alpha of that borough. I had not spent much time with her, only the brief meeting when she came of age. But from what I had observed, the tall, willowy brunette was mature beyond her years. She did not speak without thinking, and her dark brown eyes were always assessing, keeping an eye on the shifters she ruled. She was a fit queen heir.

  Selene was still a bitch. Just looking into her smug, overly made-up face was enough to send my mood into the pits.

  I focused on the rest of the alphas filling the room. There were about fifty in here now, those who ran smaller packs within the boroughs and outside of New York City. Some I knew well from my time in the Bronx and Manhattan, others I had never met before. Calista had given me a large dossier on all leaders, with their names, photos, and other basic information. So for the most part all their faces were familiar.

  I took a seat upon my throne. It had been moved here for this meeting. A queen needs her throne if she is to impose the right level of authority. My throne was littered with small chips of mecca stone; much larger ones made up my crown. I was literally thrumming with energy.

  My skin even had a slightly purple sheen to it, which all helped to ensure no one would doubt my power.

  Finn was still at my side, his head height well above the arm of my chair even though he was seated on the ground. Standing back a little and on either side were my dominants. Blaine was closest, the black and red uniform emphasizing his strong physique. His auburn hair was military-short over most of his head now, with just a little length on top for style; his focus was sharp as he observed the room.

  The fierce way he pr
otected me had a hot lurching sensation hitting me in the chest. He’d been like that for most of my life, looking out for me and Violet. But now that I was queen – and especially after losing Derek to the fae – his focus and protective instincts had increased dramatically. I prayed every day that wasn’t the thing that got him killed. His was not a death I could live with.

  Monica was on my other side, her wise eyes just as focused as Blaine’s, but with a little less fierceness in her gaze. She was my assessing dominant, always calculating odds and anticipating events. Jen, Ben, and Victor were back further again, off to the left. Blaine and Monica were on point. I hadn’t replaced Derek yet, so we were at five. I just couldn’t bring myself to fill his spot in my inner six dominants just yet. I wasn’t ready.

  I felt the stares of the council, even though they were across the other side of the room. When I glanced at them, I was hit with a wall of grim expressions. It had taken me some time to calm them down after learning that Seamus could just stroll in like that. Oh, and they still weren’t on-board with the unsealing of the fae magic room for the magic born to delve into. I had no idea if they would come around anytime soon, and really I had far too much else to worry about to dwell on their ire for long. Either way, it would happen. I had ordered it, and Violet could break in at my command if needed. I could only do what I thought was best for my people – trusting that I wasn’t a megalomaniac yet – and I hoped to always see reason if it was presented to me.

  “Your Highness…” A petite female alpha from outside of the boroughs captured my attention. She bowed to me. I took a long look at her, impressed that she’d been the first to find the courage to approach me. The dossier popped into my mind and I placed her immediately: Katy of the yellow shifter line. She ran a small pack in California, which explained the bleached blonde hair and casual beach dress she was wearing.

  “Welcome, Katy. Thank you for coming on such short notice,” I said.

  She straightened from her bow. “We’re most interested to hear your news, Queen Arianna. Thank you for the invite.”

  She left, and made her way across to join whomever she had brought from her pack. Others followed her lead then, each seeking to greet and bow to me. Some of their actions were about respect, but for the most part it was more to do with cementing their favor with the queen. I knew it, I’d been there before when I was an alpha. Just never thought I’d be the queen to which it would happen.

  Eventually, the seats in the room were all filled; a few of the males stood in the back. Only females are heirs and alphas, but some males do run the smaller packs if they are dominant enough. They have the strength to lead the wolves, but if a female alpha moves into that pack, she would fight and take over. Female wolf shifters are just born with something extra, an extra toughness needed to survive.

  Sitting straighter in my chair, Finn followed my movements by standing. I knew more than one eye was on my giant familiar; he was a legend in our world, but to me he was so much more than that. He was the other half to my soul. We had been bonded when I was five years old and my life would be nothing without him.

  At that thought, I shot a dark look toward Selene. The spare heir was looking a little too smug in her spot, front and center. Red curls artfully pinned atop her head, her deep brown eyes glinted as they locked onto me. She wore her purple silk shirt with its large symbol of her house on the front. Thankfully, Larak was nowhere to be seen. Her snake familiar had tried to kill Finn, and if he was seen in my vicinity again, I would figure out a way to have him destroyed. She knew that, which is why she was keeping him hidden away.

  I wished there was an easy way for me to strip her of her heir and spare queen rights, but for now I had no options. There were old laws that even the queen was bound to, and nothing in my power could change this unless Selene screwed up. No one wanted a sixteen-year-old, just-appointed queen heir running the wolf-shifter world if I died, no matter how mature she was.

  Calista had spies in all the boroughs trying to dig up dirt on Selene, and I had a lot of loyal shifters in the Bronx pack. But so far there had been nothing I could use against her. She’d screw up eventually, though. I had to believe it. She was as slimy as her snake.

  Dismissing her with a cold throwaway glance, I focused on the rest of the room. The mild chattering faded away immediately. Mecca swirled in arcs around me, I could feel it, and judging from the expressions of the others here, they could too.

  “Thank you all for coming on such short notice,” I said, my voice low and steady. “I would not have called for you in this manner unless it was of incredible importance. What I am going to say to you in this room cannot be shared with any others. Not yet. This is the reason you all signed the spelled confidentiality papers on the way in, so that our magic born will know if you reveal this, and we will punish you accordingly. There is no wavering on this order. I will not have anarchy in my kingdom, not when there are other ways to go about this.”

  Telling the general shifter population of a suspected impending fae war would cause chaos, which would only make it easier for them to divide and conquer us.

  A mixture of confusion and anger spilled across the faces before me. They didn’t like their rights being stripped from them, but they knew better than to argue. Not with their queen.

  How they’d feel once they knew everything … well, we were about to find out.

  “The Tuatha de Danann have returned to our world…”

  I did not let my voice waver. If there was even a single seed of doubt in my tone, they would jump all over that hesitation and never let go. I needed them to believe me. I needed them to start preparing.

  Their initial reactions were less intense than I expected. A few shifted in their seats and some wore confused faces.

  “I have recently learned that the fae are at war with each other. In the Otherworld, the Summer and Winter Courts have battled for power, for land, and for control of the mecca for generations. It seems some of this battle is spilling over into our world now. We believe…” I gestured to the council members, “that it was fae who killed the Red Queen. I was also recently attacked by a member of the dark fae court, and we barely escaped with our lives. One of my dominants was killed, along with other pack members, and some of King Kade’s bears.”

  The intensity was coming now. More than one alpha was out of their chair, and noise built in the room as they started to question me. I held up both of my hands. “I understand your confusion. We never speak of the fae. We learn nothing of their history. But this ignorance can stand no longer. They know about us. They have attacked and tried to weaken us already, in the hopes that soon they can walk through to our mecca and take it from us. We cannot let this happen. To take the mecca would be to take the very thing that makes us powerful.

  “It’s time to start preparing our people for war. Shifters need to be trained, sources of magic collected and given to our magic born so they may prepare. I need your help. We all need to work together or they will cut through us with ease.”

  I paused, letting my message and energy fill the space. I was not at all surprised when my dominants crowded closer to me; the alphas did not look happy. In fact I would go as far to say that we were about five seconds from a riot. I shifted my head to the council and gave them a nod. It was their turn to step in. I was a new queen, and while I had the power, respect and trust would take time. The council, on the other hand, were well trusted by the people.

  Torine stood, and his deep voice cut through the confusion. “The queen speaks truth on this. We have seen the evidence.”

  Some of the noise died down as he went on to explain everything that had happened over the past few weeks. He skimmed over the bears’ involvement in all of this, which was the path we’d all decided on earlier. I already knew my people would have trouble accepting the truth of a fae war. No need to make it even harder by bringing up the enemy they did actually believe in.

  When Torine was done, a sort of stunned silence descended
across the room. Most of the alphas had sunk back into their chairs, eyes wide and mouths slack. We had torn their safe world apart with our revelations, but I was sure that most of them would come to the realization that it was better to know, to be prepared.

  I spoke again, my voice even but firm. “I know you’re in shock right now. That we even have this sort of enemy out there is not something any of us have had to consider in our lifetimes. But ignorance does not stop the fae from attacking. It only gets us killed without even having a chance to put up a fight. It’s time for you all to head to your packs and start preparing for this war. But you cannot tell them everything yet. Mass panic doesn’t help anyone. I’m doing as much as I can behind the scenes. I want every one of you to know that I’ll be doing everything in my power to fight them … but I am going to need your help.”

  More than one head nodded. Some of their shock and fear was being replaced by anger and determination. We were a resilient species; we protected what was ours. Our people. Our packs. Our power. The fae would not take us unawares. We would not die off like the witches and warlocks.

  One woman stood. She had long jet-black hair and carried herself in a way that told me she was a great and well-respected leader. A quick mental scan of the dossier provided me with her name: Bianca, Boston’s alpha. Word on the street was that she went out of her way to help other packs – a version of the nice cat lady who took in strays, but who could also kill you with her bare hands. The other alphas loved her. I could see it in the way they looked at her now, waiting for her reaction. I held my head high, ready for whatever response she had.

  “Long live the queen!” she roared, holding her fist high. I breathed a sigh of relief as the others chorused their agreement. My people were with me.

  The meeting broke up soon after as the alphas prepared to return to their packs. The council gave them all one final warning of secrecy, and some information about fae security and increased patrols for all bodies of water around their territories, and then they were gone.