The Alpha Kings Fairy Princess

Chapter 2

I take my normal route on my run. Running along the tree line of the southern border of the pack lands, rounding the training fields and pack house, finishing up at the little café just a few minutes from home. I walked in and ordered another coffee and a massive double chocolate muffin, my stomach screams because I didn't eat before my run. The muffin doesn’t make it long, as I inhale it and enjoy my coffee as I head back home to gather my stuff.

I take in the pack as I make my way, admiring my home. We have many kinds of supernaturals here; Vampires, changelings, Sirens, a coven of witches and mages, a few solo practitioners, several different shifter groups and werewolves, the majority. Each group brings their own beauty, skill, and value to the pack.

In Crescent Moon, we welcome all kinds. Most become warriors, others work with the healers, oracles and witches, or have shops of their very own. We have clothing shops, grocery stores, a few restaurants and a wonderful café, three schools and a handful of other independent businesses. We also have a few farms on the opposite side of the territory, all serving a purpose the prosperity of the pack.

It wasn’t always like this.

Hundreds of years ago, we all lived separately, in our own lands and realms, until the dark fairies brought war. History says that Draco, the King of the dark Fae, was to wed Aloura, the future Queen of the Light Fae, a direct descendant of Queen Mab, to form a peace treaty between the Realms. All was going according to plan, until Aloura met her mate, her true mate, the night before the wedding. He was a Fae Lord within her realm.

Queen Mab agreed to dissolve the engagement. She believed that true mates were to be honored and held power like no other. This, of course, enraged King Draco, and he declared war on the light Fae and all the realms they allied with. Anyone aligned with Queen Mab became his enemy. That meant everyone. For years, war waged on. Draco slowly took over, realm by realm, heading straight for Lira, Queen Mabs Realm. When he couldn’t penetrate the protection spell over the realm, he turned his sights on ours.

An oracle came forward and announced that all kinds would need to learn to fight together to survive. The dark fairies were taking over and army upon army was being defeated. Still, the species refused to work together until numbers began to dwindle so low that they had no choice. It wasn’t until King Sammuel of Lira, Aroura’s mate, leant his armies to our cause. If it weren’t for him, we would surely have lost.

After the war, the fairies completely disappeared from our world. There are many rumors surrounding why. It is widely believed their numbers dwindled so low they had to go into hiding to survive. No one has seen a fairy in hundreds of years. Now, we all live in peace together. Most packs these days are multi-species packs, dual species at the very least.

Once the war was won, we realized that we had more in common with each other than we once knew. It’s also safer this way. Crescent Moon has just over 700 members and growing.

There are still dangers in the world, rogues of all species, factions that want war or to overthrow their leaders, but that’s just life. I don’t know of one pack out there. That’s just one group. Even covens of witches belong to packs these days, some covens are spread across multiple because of families or mates.

As I’m walking up the driveway towards my house, I spot my best friend Macy sitting on my porch.

“Mace!”

“Hey girl, where were you?”

“Quick run. I just came back to grab my stuff to head to the lab.”

“I thought you’d be at work by now. I noticed you weren’t there when I got there so I texted you but you never answered. So, I came here.”

“Worried about little ole’ me, Mace?”

Macy, followed me inside to grab my things. I ran to the kitchen to splash some cold water on my face, attempting to remove some of the sweat from my run. I refreshed my deodorant and threw my tunic top back on. Grabbing my bag, Macy and I walked back out of the house towards the lab.

“I wasn’t worried. It’s just not like you to not be at work extra early.”

“Andy got under my skin about not training. So, he encouraged my run.” I told her and we both rolled our eyes. She knows, same as me, that Andy means well, but that right now, without a wolf, I don’t see the point in continuing my training. I’m fast and I can protect myself, I wouldn’t make a good warrior without a wolf.

As we neared the lab, this sickening feeling of dread washes over me and my wrist started to ache again. The same pain from this morning started to shoot up my arm again only now the pain was so bad I dropped to my knees, the contents in my arms spilling all over the ground. Macy stopped dead in her tracks and leaned down to help pick me up. She pulls me to my feet and into the grass under a tree just off the path.

The pain starts to lessen, the deeper and slower I breathe until it stops, almost as fast as it came on. Letting out a deep breath, I brace myself and try to get my bearings again. My heart is beating fast in my chest, my breathing deep and slow.

“What the f**k happened?” Macy asks, checking me over to make sure I’m okay.

“I have no idea. I got this sickening feeling as soon as we crossed the grounds, like deep in the pit of my stomach and then my wrist. f**k that hurt!”

Normally, it’s no worse than after my shower this morning, I can rub my birthmark and the pain stops. Instinctively, my hand goes to rub the mark and I feel my heart lurch in my chest. It’s never been that bad before and I make a mental note to bring this up to the elders soon. Macy reads my thoughts as she clears her throat.

“Do the Elders have any new information? What about the royal library? Did you hear back from them?” Macy’s says looking at my wrist. I share everything I know about it with her, she would be the first I talked to about any new developments.

“No. They reached out to some of the other clans to see if anyone knew anything. That was weeks ago. Elder Jason was at the café the other morning and completely avoided eye contact, raced out of there as soon as he got his order. I’m starting to think they know something and just won’t tell me. The Librarian at the Royal Library has mailed out some texts she thinks may help but she isn’t totally sure, and they haven’t arrived yet.” I reply, ready to stand and get this day over with.

I start to take tentative steps towards the lab again and the feeling I had earlier is completely gone. After a few more steps I feel confident the issue has passed for now.

“Come on we need to head in.” I say to Macy, hooking my arm with hers as we walk in the building and head to our floor.

Three hours later, Macy and I start to wrap up our work. I think I may have found a way to synthesize the wolfsbane into a vaccination, like the smallpox or measles vaccines the humans have. If I’m right, this could change the shifter community. If I could do this with wolfsbane, I may be able to do this with other substances that are harmful to the supernatural communities.

“Mace, I think we’re close. I think we can start testing.” I look at my best friend with hope.

“Girl, if we can do this…when we do this, it’s going to change lives. Thousands of lives.”

“And that’s just the start. Think about the possibilities.”

We grab our bags and hang our lab coats up. Punching in the secure keypad code we leave.

“I’ll see you later, I have the clinic in 20.”

“Wait, let’s get coffee quick, there should be time.”

I glance at my watch, she’s right and mine spilled when I dropped everything this morning. I nod and we head off to the café knowing they’re not particularly busy this time of day. We part ways after we grab our drinks and I make my way back to the clinic.

My appointments pass rather quickly, and I find that the day flies by. I’m planning on speaking to the director at the lab about brining the witch, Annabelle, into the lab. She’s rather intelligent and I think she could be an asset, she has all of the qualifications and I could us another lab assistant.

As I’m packing up to leave for the day, I start to feel this pull, an urge to go for another run. This happens from time to time, and I always wind up in the same place. The Dark Forest to the south, and I waste no time taking my usual route through the pack, heading towards my destination.

Our territory is one of the largest in the world. The pack is surrounded by dense forest on all sides that’s perfect for hunting. The Northern, Western and Eastern borders stretch 15-20 miles in all directions. The southern border, however, is its own entity. The dark forest stretches well over 100 miles, though according to pack maps our border only extends 25 miles in.

The rumors surrounding that part of the pack lands say that some of the most horrifying and dangerous creatures’ dwell there. Some say they are just feral rogues of many species who intermix, creating true born rogue hybrids which can be unpredictable. Others say the creatures are something left over from the war, and they’re bound to the forest by an ancient spell, old magic.

We don’t patrol within the forest limits there, just the boarder of the tree line. The rest of the forest surrounding the pack lands we patrol thoroughly. As far as I know, I’m the only one brave enough to enter the forest, and I’ve never had any problems. It was here that I discovered the meadow, somewhere I don’t have time to visit today, but will soon enough.

My run is peaceful, I stick to the paths I’m familiar with. I don’t dare venture too far. I always keep the light from the tree line within sight while I’m running the paths. You see, once you enter far enough, you can’t tell what time of day it is. It’s so incredibly dark. The canopy of trees is so thick that neither sunlight nor moonlight can enter. The only way to know is to be by the tree line. If you lose sight of it, and don’t know the paths, you’re sure to get lost.

Eventually, I head home, but when I leave the forest, somehow, it’s dusk. I stumbled through the fields before me, I was so confused. I pulled my phone out to look at the time and gasped in shock. Many missed calls and text messages, my phone didn’t even ring.

I raced home, the look on my father’s face when I walked in the door told me everything I needed to know. They were worried. I’m never late, adult or not, I’m never, ever late.