Royal Alpha

by Riley Storm

  “That is all dependent on just what agreement that was,” he said giving himself the opening he hoped he needed. “There are a great many policies Laurien implemented that will no longer be allowed.”

  “Oh, you needn’t worry about that,” Miriam said with a smile. “This is an old one that has been around forever.”

  “And that is?” he asked, wishing she would just spit it out already.

  “The blessing and approval of my daughter Heather being mated to Leonen Canis.”

  Logan went still, feeling the dagger drive in between his ribs, aimed at his heart. She’d known. The bitch had known he wouldn’t want to agree to it, but she’d outmaneuvered him into a position in which he couldn’t rightly say no. After all, what would his reasoning be for denying it?

  It wasn’t like he could exactly tell everyone he still had feelings for her. That would be inappropriate, even if it was true. Yes, he thought she was still beautiful, and he looked back on their time together fondly, but he had neither seen nor talked to Heather in three years. That was a long time. Besides, he was pretty sure she still hated him.

  “Is there a problem…my King?” Miriam added in a polite voice when he didn’t immediately respond.

  The knife plunged a tiny bit deeper. Logan couldn’t say no himself. This was the cost of his position. The House needed Miriam to support him as King, and that meant putting his own desires aside. If it meant helping bring unity back, then he could do it. But maybe…

  Leonen stepped forward out of the crowd, and Logan tried his best not to fling himself from the throne and throttle the other shifter into the ground. Leonen had been the biggest thorn in his side since assuming the throne all of two days prior. He was the head of the largest political bloc opposing Logan.

  Mating him with Heather would bring their two factions together, making them quite possibly strong enough to challenge him for the throne if he showed any signs of weakness.

  Yet despite that, Logan couldn’t see a way out of it all. Not for him, at least.

  “As long as this is okay with you,” he said, looking at Leonen, who nodded swiftly without even returning the gaze. “And as long as this is what your daughter wants.”

  He phrased the sentence perfectly. All Heather had to do now was say that she didn’t want to mate Leonen, and he would have an out, a means to deny the arranged mating.

  All eyes in the room turned to Heather now. He saw her swallow nervously and thought maybe she was going to decline the entire thing.

  “It is,” she said in a voice just loud enough for Logan to hear.

  The knife went home, piercing his heart.

  “So be it,” he said quietly. “I approve.”

  Miriam nodded politely. “Thank you, my King.”

  He nodded stiffly, ignoring the pain and cold flooding his body, spreading his arms out wide. This was necessary. This had to happen.

  For the good of High House Canis.

  “Welcome home.”

  3

  Pushing back from his desk, Logan stood up, rubbing his face before running a hand over his freshly buzzed head. It irked him to have to take care of such things so often, but as King, he was expected to maintain certain appearances and look “put together”—as some of the more sycophantic members of the House put it.

  Frankly, he thought the whole charade could go to hell, and he intended on doing something about it once things settled down. For now, however, he would do what he felt was necessary to keep the peace and ensure all sides were happy.

  “Including letting that asshat mate Heather,” he spat to himself, letting the anger flow into his words, wishing it would leave him as he spoke it.

  But it didn’t. It pooled in his gut and sat there, eating away at him. All afternoon, he’d done little but replay that entire scene in his head over and over. Heather had looked right at him. She’d met his eyes and said it was what she wanted.

  Logan knew that couldn’t be though. Could it? No, of course not. There was no way Heather could have changed that much since he’d last seen her. She was smart and strong. There was another reason.

  Probably just to spite him. Things hadn’t exactly ended amicably between them, and although it was the former King who had sent her mother to Australia, Heather could have chosen to stay. Instead, she’d take the opportunity and fled, opting to be just about as far away from Logan as she possibly could.

  Yeah, “not amicably” is a polite way of putting it.

  Logan wasn’t stupid enough to think she would have shown up and just run back into his arms if he’d asked her to. Heather was far too strong-willed for that. Still, he hadn’t been prepared for how much it hurt to hear her say she wanted to be mated to someone else. That had wounded him.

  There was a knock at his door.

  Holding back a sigh, he walked around the desk and across the rectangular room. It was far too big for his needs, the walls on one side of his desk filled with expensive leather-bound books, while the other played host to paintings that, honestly, didn’t resonate with him in the slightest.

  “I really need to redecorate and get rid of Laurien’s shit,” he muttered to himself as he passed a painting of a man that looked suspiciously like the former King grabbing a bull by the horns and wrestling it to the ground. Literally.

  Logan pulled open the door and stopped.

  “What can I do for you?” he asked in a tight voice, feeling anger seething at the back of his neck as it pulled the muscles there taut.

  “I’d like to talk to you,” Leonen said, meeting Logan’s gaze calmly.

  The two of them were roughly the same height, neither needing to look up to the other. Leonen was bigger, but also a little softer. In contrast to his frame, Logan was taut iron-wrapped muscle built from days of hard work and lots of fighting during the rebellion. Fight that Leonen had somehow managed to avoid entirely.

  Logan thought he knew why, but wasn’t about to say anything about it. Political figures avoiding combat was nothing new with the shifters, just as it wasn’t with humans either. They shared many things in common, it seemed.

  “Come in then,” Logan said, stepping back from the door.

  You’re King now. You’re going to have to learn to deal peacefully with people you dislike.

  There were a dozen ways Logan would like to deal with Leonen, starting with tossing him through the center of that ridiculous painting.

  “What can I do for you, Leonen?” he asked, the words grating out.

  He’s not done anything to wrong you. Stay calm. You need the support of his bloc. Keep them happy with you.

  It was like walking on a tightrope, trying to balance all the wants and needs of the various factions within House Canis. Logan hated it. Politics shouldn’t be a thing with shifters, but yet, here they were.

  He needed Leonen’s people, however, because if he alienated them to the point they decided to join completely with Miriam, he was in trouble. His own supporters were fanatically loyal, but he wasn’t sure they were strong enough to contest the others. Nor did he want to see that tested.

  “I just came by to tell you it’s nothing personal with Heather,” the other man said. “I know that the two of you…had a thing. But you have to see the benefits of the two of us mating.”

  Gritting his teeth, Logan nodded. For the good of the House. For the good of the House. He just kept repeating that line over and over, hoping eventually, he might actually believe it.

  “Okay good. I wouldn’t want you to think any part of me was rubbing this in or anything,” Leonen said.

  Like you just did, by saying the opposite?

  “Of course not,” Logan said with a false smile. “I would never suspect such a thing. This is a good arranged mating,” he said, very subtly stressing the word arranged, to ensure Leonen understood nobody actually thought Heather wanted to be with him.

  A flare of nostrils was the only reaction Leonen gave to the insult. He was keeping everything under a tight lock and ke
y, doing a much better job than Logan was, that was for sure.

  Just hold it together a bit longer. Then he’ll be gone and you can let it out. Just keep calm. For the good of the House.

  “Indeed, you’re right, of course,” Leonen said with an obviously fake smile. “Still, I’m excited to make her mine. Once she’s clean, I expect to mate with her immediately. She’s very fertile, like her lineage. I expect to sire many children with her. An excellent pairing, don’t you think?”

  Despite seeing red at the idea of Leonen and Heather being together physically, Logan just nodded. “But of course. Her fertility should ensure your lineage has no issues carrying on.”

  It was the closest he could get to referring to the impotence problems that plagued Leonen’s male ancestors without outright saying so. But the other shifter got it. He understood.

  “I guess I’ll just have to make sure I mount her enough times that it will be impossible not to,” Leonen said.

  Logan’s self-control snapped. King or not, he grabbed Leonen by the neck and flung the unsuspecting shifter face-first into the bull on the wall. The painting ripped and tore in a most gratifying manner, but it was the thunk of Leonen hitting the wall head-on that brought a smile to Logan’s face.

  You fucked up so badly.

  “Yeah, I did,” he said to himself as Leonen got to his feet. “So, I guess I better make the most of it.”

  He strode forward and launched a fist at Leonen’s face. The other shifter yanked his head out of the way, turning a devastating blow into a glancing strike. Then he counter-punched, Logan grunting as the fist landed hard against his ribcage.

  That hurt. A lot.

  Blows were exchanged and blocked, went home and were deflected as they went at it. Out in the hallway, Logan knew his guards would be running into the room any moment now. They would break up any fight still ongoing.

  “You’re going to pay for this,” Leonen snarled, advancing and throwing a feint right before jabbing with his left.

  Logan saw it coming a mile away. It was a boxer’s move. A dueling move. Not something you ever saw in a real-world fight where there were no rules, no gloves. Both hands came up, grabbing Leonen’s extended arm, and he twisted violently.

  Bone snapped. Logan dropped the now useless arm and lashed out with a knee that took Leonen in the gut. Then he followed it up with a double overhead hammer blow to the back of Leonen’s neck that dropped him flat to the ground, smashing his face into a solid object for the second time in a few minutes.

  There was a pounding on his door by the guards.

  “It’s fine!” he barked. “Stand down. Return to your posts.”

  “Sir…” one of the guards tried to protest through the door.

  “Landry. I am fine. Now return to your posts. Nothing happened in here.” He looked down at Leonen who was now stirring. “Did it?” he asked.

  The other shifter stared daggers at him, but shook his head, knowing full well that this would look just as bad on him for coming to taunt the King as it did the King throwing the first blow. Neither of them had made smart moves.

  Logan, at least, had been able to take out some of his anger, and show Leonen that challenging the King to a fight was a bad idea.

  “Get out of my office,” he snarled, reaching down and hauling Leonen to his feet. “I’m approving your mating, but don’t test me any further.”

  The shifter fled, but not before a backward glance that promised a lot of trouble for Logan in the future.

  “You idiot. You should have just let him say whatever and then leave.”

  This wasn’t how a King was supposed to act. Not at all. Logan would have to find a better way to let off his steam.

  Maybe I’ll go for a walk tonight.

  4

  She wasn’t avoiding Leonen. Not at all.

  It was just that she couldn’t sleep and wandering the lower hallways in the older sections of Moonshadow Manor was always a peaceful way to achieve some solitude and air out thoughts to herself. It was also far more appealing than letting him get all handsy with her, not that she could say that to anyone.

  Reaching out to drag her fingertips along the stone walls, Heather reflected on how weird it felt to be back. After so many years away in a completely different environment—she’d lived mostly among humans, not her native shifters—everything felt just slightly out of place. Including her.

  She took a small stairway down to yet another level, where the stone once again seemed to be older still. That was one of the beautiful things about Moonshadow Manor. The original building still stood at the heart of it all.

  Built to house only a dozen or so shifters when they had first arrived nearly four-hundred years earlier, it had since been swallowed up. The original name still applied, but the building rivalled a great many palaces in size and scope now, with additions having been added rapidly at first as the numbers grew.

  Heather recalled the stories and lessons she’d been taught as a child, about how the shifters had fled Europe and persecution at the hands of the mages. Their numbers grew swiftly in the new world, and as such, construction had been nearly nonstop for the first century or more.

  As a result, at the heart of the old Manor was a maze of passages and tunnels, many of which were uncatalogued. It was easy to lose oneself in there. Almost none of it was used anymore, except as storage for old items no longer in fashion. Even then, the lower one went, the less storage there was. Most of the shifters avoided it, sticking to the newer, more up to date areas.

  That was why coming down here was the perfect way to find peace and even try to connect with her ancestors, to seek their guidance in what she should do.

  I didn’t think seeing him again would be so hard. Or that seeing him on the throne would be so weird.

  It shocked her to realize that, after she’d heard he had run off with the rebels, a large part of Heather had just sort of assumed Logan was dead. She most certainly never expected him to win! Nobody did. Perhaps that was why he’d managed to beat the Tyrant King, because everyone had underestimated him.

  Although Laurien isn’t dead. Not yet. A loose end Logan has yet to finish off.

  But Logan wasn’t her biggest problem. No, that was Leonen and her arranged mating to him. Heather shuddered.

  “The things I do for my family,” she whispered to herself, forcing down the rising bile at the thought of having to produce offspring with him. “Ew.”

  Her mind called up an image of Logan after she’d told him to his face that she wanted to be mated to Leonen. Most people would have seen the stone-faced exterior of a King, but Heather knew him better than that. She could see the pain behind his eyes, the amber circles unable to hide it from her.

  “What else was I supposed to say though?” she asked the walls, pressing her palm flat against one. She owed too much to her family, to the protection they had given her while she was…vulnerable.

  If only they had waited another year. Another year, and she wouldn’t have needed to worry what her mother thought. She would be her own woman then.

  Or dead, but if that’s the case, who cares?

  Life hadn’t felt inclined to wait, however, and so Heather did what was required of her, what any good daughter would do. She strengthened her family. It wasn’t any different than what her own mother had done when she was her age.

  “And look how that turned out,” she muttered.

  “How what turned out?”

  Gasping, she spun to see Logan standing in the hallway behind her.

  “How did you find me?” she asked.

  He rolled his eyes. “Really? Aside from the fact I know you like to come down here to think, I can also track your scent. We’re shifters, remember?”

  Heather just glowered at him. “Why are you down here?” she asked, changing tactics. Had he followed her?

  “I wasn’t following you,” he said, reading her mind. “Believe it or not, you’re not the only one who comes down here to think in p
eace.”

  She knew that. The footsteps in the dust on the ground told her that.

  “I see.” She hesitated. “So, how are you?”

  I really hope that didn’t sound as awkward as it felt.

  “I’m…okay,” Logan said, forcing his lips upward in what she assumed he thought was a smile.

  It didn’t do much for his face, she thought, not when he was so obviously forcing it. The usual strong, chiseled features disappeared, molding themselves into something almost lumpy and uneven. At least he was still keeping his hair cut almost to the skin the way she liked. He had a good head for it, helping ensure he didn’t hide those strong eyes, golden-brown and penetrating to the point she always felt he was looking in her, not at her. Like he was now.

  She swallowed nervously. “T-that’s good.”

  “It’s good to see you,” he added tightly. “I mean, like, uh, like as yourself.”

  Those normally strong eyes looked ready to fold up into themselves as he spoke. Heather wondered if he would continue, trying to double down on this new meaning, instead of what he’d clearly meant about it being nice to see her. She decided to run with the second angle.

  “You mean as a shifter still, instead of some sort of ravenous Loup-Garou?”

  It took her a second to realize this was one of the first times she’d given voice to the thing that for all she knew, could be lurking inside her.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Logan said, awkwardly trying to plead with her. “But, uh, pretty much?”

  There’s the old sense of humor, she thought dryly. It is still in there, somewhere.

  “Well, the threat’s not over,” she said, not letting him get off that easily. “You know that, of course. Not until I turn thirty-one without, well, losing it. Really, if anything, I’m in the prime danger zone right now. That last year, when you think you’ve just about made it. Did you know over fifty percent of all Loup-Garou manifestations in females occur in the last year?”

  Logan just shook his head, wisely remaining silent this time. Hmm, maybe he can learn after all. That wasn’t fair, she decided. He obviously had learned quite a lot and was using it in his attempt to reunite the House. It was just women he was still completely at a loss with.