Free Book | The Lost Werewolf King's Mate

Chapter 24: Kendrick's POV

THREE YEARS LATER

"Knock, knock"

"Come in", Mathew answered on the other side.

"Hey Mathew, how are you doing today?", I asked using my friendliest tone. I knew the man didn't like 'meaningless' chatter like this, as he called it, but I still held out hope that I'd get something other than his usual void and emotionless response.

I've spent every day with this man for the past three years, but I can never get used to how big he has gotten. I guess seeing as he's the Werewolf king, his size has to demonstrate his status and power. Power which was constantly seeping out of every single one of his pores. So far, only ranked wolves are strong enough to be in the same room as him. Some alphas couldn't even stand next to him because of how strong his aura is.

His dark green eyes looked up at me for a second, but he didn't even bother lifting his head.

"Give me your update. I'm busy." The authority in his voice would illicit fear from most werewolves, but I'm his royal beta so, unlike others, I can withstand his powerful aura and voice. That is, unless he decides to really use it against me.

He scratched his perfectly trimmed beard which, in my opinion, made him look older. I've tried to hint that he should shave it but the man either ignored me or just didn't catch any of my hints. I was just grateful he hadn't decided to grow his hair out. He would have looked even more like a viking.

The air in his office was tense, but this was nothing new to me. For the past 3 years, every encounter with the Werewolf king has been tense. It always feels like he won't tolerate any nonsense or anything short of perfection from his subjects. It's been effective, but I'll be the first to admit that he could maybe tone it down just a little so that his subjects could get a bit closer to him.

"Your'e not even going to ask your own beta how he's doing? I've been busting my butt helping you to set up these alliances and not even a "how are you my dearest friend, Kendrick?"

This earned me a scowl. I was annoying him, but I would never stop because I knew that somewhere deep down the Mathew that drove back with me from the seat of the Werewolf kingdom was still in there.

I just shrugged and sat down.

"Here is the alliance agreement freshly signed by the alpha of the Stone River pack. That, my grumpy friend, was the final werewolf pack. Every werewolf pack is now a part of the alliance."

I thought that would at least bring a smile to his face, but it didn't. He just took the contract and put it in his files.

"Make sure to send me the ele-"

"the electronic copy?", I said as I interrupted him. Already sent it to you."

He just nodded his head and went back to typing on his laptop.

"Getting an alliance with other magical creatures is still difficult. They're either too stubborn and proud to agree to an alliance or they want me to marry their daughters or want me to promise my future pups to them. It's like the fact that Raphael is walking amongst the living is of no concern to them." He was running his hands through his short and thick dark brown hair. The magical community's lack of cooperation in uniting against Raphael was something that really frustrated him.

Even getting all the werewolf packs to join the alliance was no easy feat. They had all been living without a king for more than a decade. Most of them didn't even see the need for a Werewolf king. Despite the fact that all packs had grown weaker since the fall of the werewolf kingdom, produced fragile pups, lost pack members to the witches and rogue attacks and ranked wolves were no longer as powerful as they were during King Ezekiel and Queen Elaine's reign, most packs were still convinced that they were better off without a Werewolf king.

It was only after each pack swore their allegiance to Mathew that they each noticed the revived strength flowing through them. And since most packs didn't have a seer or an elder with seer abilities, it took them some time to connect the dots and realise that their renewed strength was due to the Moon Godess blessing us with a king again.

All wolves have gotten bigger and stronger, most pups are a force to be reckoned with and more wolves are finding their fated mates since packs aren't isolating themselves and hiding anymore. Word started spreading that swearing allegiance to the Werewolf king came with renewed strength and more packs started flocking to us, desperate to regain their former strength and glory.

Mathew and I took this as an opportunity to make some very necessary changes in the werewolf world. We created training academies and made it compulsory for future betas and alphas to attend. We implemented laws to get rogue wolves integrated back into packs where possible. Most importantly, we've made werewolf packs more inclusive so that other magical creatures can seek refuge with them.

There were two packs that reneged on their allegiance to the Werewolf king. They hastily concluded that the renewed strength and favour that had returned to their packs was merely a coincidence. A month later, the two packs wiped each other out while fighting over which one of them would rule the werewolves after they killed the Werewolf king. It was stupid to die over something like that, but their story seems to serve as a cautionary tale to most packs. They understand that the Werewolf king and his family were already chosen by the Moon Godess a very long time ago to rule over the werewolves.

"I say you should marry Princess Cecillia Appledoorn from the Nymph kingdom." I had a sly smile on my face. I knew this was a propesterous suggestion, but I wanted to tease him. The kid was probably only 18 and even though she didn't throw herself at Mathew like most women do, she was nowhere near ready to be a queen. Besides, Matthew already has a queen. He just can't have her at the moment.

He emitted a low growl. "I'm not trying to have a childbride ruling beside me, Kendrick. Princess Cecillia is like 10 years younger than me. What would we even talk about?"

"I don't know, boss. She's actually very mature for her age." I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, but I was struggling to hide my laugh.

He furrowed his brows and looked astonished at what I just said. "Ken, you're not seriously trying to convince me a kid is 'mature for their age', are you?

A sly smile appeared on my face and he knew I wasn't actually suggesting that a 28 year old man marry an 18 year old girl.

He exhaled, shook his head and stood up from his chair.

"Have you managed to find the Kelpie kingdom?" He handed me a file and stood next to his window overlooking the majestic human city.

I sat up straight in my chair because I didn't have any good news to report on that front. "No", I cleared my throat. "You see searching water bodies as a werewolf has proven to be difficult." I tried to laugh to ease the tension, but it didn't help.

He groaned. "I've compiled a list of possible locations for the kingdom in that file. I've had our warriors search these locations. Each time they came back, they found traces of the kelpies having been there but they had already left. It's like they keep moving."

He gritted his teeth before he continued talking. "I didn't want to do this, but we're going to have to ask King Killian for help. And before you ask me, yes. I have asked the kings and queens from every magical kingdom we're in contact with if they know where the kelpie kingdom is, and none of them know, even the seers don't know. That bastard Killian may be our last hope."

I knew that if Mathew was suggesting that we ask the gryphon king, King Killian Scarth, for help then he truly was desperate.

When Mathew arrived at the Gryphon kingdom, the aura emanating from him was strong enough to make the ranked and royal members of the Gryphon kingdom bow their heads to him. King Killian saw this and he felt the need to put the 'mutt', as he so eloquently put it, in his place. He issued a challenge to the Werewolf king even though we were his guests.

Mathew had no choice but to accept the challenge. It was insulting enough that the challenge had been issued in the first place. If he had refused it, he was going to be seen as weak and not worthy of even being in the Gryphon kingdom.

The two men battled it out in something that resembled an ancient gladiator arena. They beat each other until they were unrecognisable, but Mathew emerged as the victor. King Killian wasn't going to accept defeat that easily so he shifted into his charcoal black gryphon and demanded that Mathew shift as well so that their beasts could fight. His father, Maxwell Scarth, stopped the whole thing before Mathew could respond to the new challenge.

We managed to have a few meetings after that, but Killian didn't attend any of them; his father did. We even attended a ball where unmated she-gryphs were all too happy to try and bed the man who bested their king. However, King Killian was also a no show at the ball. We both knew that the Gryphon kingdom was very close to viewing werewolves as enemies, and not a mere nuisance, which was how they viewed us throughout most of history.

Growing up, we had one gryphon in the werewolf kingdom, but King Ezekiel and Queen Elaine hadn't cemented mutual respect from the Gryphon kingdom before their untimely deaths. The fact that werewolves chose to hide when the witches attacked their packs and didn't stand together against them to protect themselves and the creatures on our lands, has caused a further dent in our reputation. Repairing the reputation of werewolves to their former glory was going to take time.

I tapped my chin as I tried to think of the best way to ask that smug and stubborn King Killian for help. "Boss, the coronation might be the best time to talk to him. Everyone is going to use it to strike political deals. We can ask him about it then."

He let out a deep sigh. "I know, but will he attend the coronation? And even if he does, something tells me he is going to issue one of his silly little challenges to mend his bruised ego."

He walked to his fridge and grabbed two water bottles and threw one in my direction.

"We have been looking for the kelpie kingdom for two years, Ken. Raphael is out there rallying his troops. I can feel it in my bones. We need as many magical kingdoms as we can get on our side before he strikes again."

I nodded my head. "Of course, boss. Why don't you leave this to me? I'll find a way to get him to accept the invitation."

I thought I almost saw what looked like a slight smile, but it disappeared way too fast for me to be to tell with certainty. He was already back at his desk typing away on his computer.

"If he does issue a challenge, boss and demands that your beasts fight it out, do you think you'll be able to fight him?" I didn't want to ask this question, but the circumstances demanded that I remind the man of his predicament. He hasn't been able to shift in 3 years.

This time he looked up; he didn't just tilt his eyes to glance up at me. I saw him take a deep breath. "I was holding back the last time I fought Killian. If he demands that I fight his beast, I'm sure I won't have a problem."

I knew he was lying. I just couldn't tell if he was lying for my benefit or his own.

Gryphons are much bigger and stronger than wolves. The kingdom has spent centuries killing its weakest fledglings and undergoing training that left most of them dead just so they could produce the perfect soldiers. They believed their god, Maru, the god of the heavens, would only accept the strongest warriors to adorn his blue skies. A werewolf beating a gryphon in human form is unheard of, so Mathew's victory was the worst kind of humiliation on Killian and his kingdom. A wolf beating a gryphon in beast form would be impossible.

"Boss, we both know-"

"I won't speak another word about this, Kendrick" He cut me off. I decided to leave it and discuss something that was much more difficult than him possibly getting killed by the Gryphon king.

I coughed awkwardly hoping to get his attention again. I didn't want to talk about this, but I'm the Werewolf king's beta so I'm the only person who can talk about this matter with him.

"Just tell me the bad news, Ken." Again, he wasn't even looking up.

"It's not bad news, boss." I really didn't want to do this, but I promised my beautiful Esther that I would enquire about this so that she could relay the message to the interior decorator. I already knew the answer to my question, but I promised my mate I would ask our king instead of making assumptions.

"I was wondering whether you're going to tell Megan the truth about who you really are before the coronation. I'm only asking because the the interior designer asked whether she should decorate the suite next to yours in the palace as a... luna suite."

He remained quiet for what seemed like an eternity. He even stopped typing.

"Esther also wants to know if she should be planning Megan's Queen ceremony soon."

He finally broke the silence and was looking at me. It felt like his dark green eyes were staring down at my soul.

"Tell the interior designer there will be no luna suite in my palace." He had a pained expression on his face, but he instantly replaced it with his normal stoic demeanour. "And Esther doesn't need to worry about the queen's coronation because I don't have my queen."

I knew he would say that.

The tension in the room was palpable. I didn't want to sour his mood even further, but we had to make sure that we weren't supposed to be planning the Queen's coronation right after the King's coronation.

I nodded my head, took the file he gave me and walked out of his office. I instantly started thinking about how excited he was to make Elizabeth his queen just a few years ago. Now he won't even allow anyone to say her name.

When I got downstairs, I ran into Eric.

"Did you manage to talk to the boss?", Eric asked.

I exhaled loudly. "Yes, and I'm still alive."

We both laughed.

Eric and I are one of the few people who know not to take Mathew's stoic demeanour personally. We've grown close over the years and our jokes over our grumpy boss always crack people up. He honestly treats me the way he treats Mathew, like I'm his son.

"Ken, you may not believe this but the boss wasn't always this....unhappy...", Eric said.

I nodded my head. "I believe you, Eric. He's just going through something right now."

He shook his head.

"Kendrick, the boss has been going through something for the past few years. That man has made so much money, but nothing can make him smile. He has 45 high end restaurants in America, he owns 6 hotels, he has 5 construction offices in the country. Heck, that engineering investigation cleared his name. He even has his own engineering firms now. None of that has made him happy. Does he know how lucky he is? Does he know how many people would kill to look like him and be as smart and successful as he is?"

"Eric, come on. He might hear you." I was whispering and laughing, but I knew that Mathew had already heard us. His hearing picks up things even other werewolves can't hear. I was secretly hoping he would take what Eric said to heart and maybe try to be happy every once in a while.

Eric shook his head again.

"No, it's about damn time someone told him." He was shouting and looking at the stairs leading to Mathew's office. "He has people who care about him and love him to bits, he has homes in several destinations, he has all the fancy new cars and you told me he's essentially renovating a place that's the size of an entire state. What will make him happy? Has that happy young men I once knew just disappeared? What the hell is going on with him?"

I took Eric's arm and dragged him away from the stairs. Mathew wasn't a patient man and he wouldn't take anymore of this screaming in his favourite restaurant franchise. If we disturbed the customers, we wouldn't hear the end of it.

"Look, I told you. It's because of..." I stopped talking and searched for a pen and paper. I took the notepad and pen that were sticking out of Eric's shirt pocket and wrote Elizabeth’s name on it.

Eric furrowed his brows at me.

"Eli..." I covered his mouth before he could say her full name.

I warned him with my eyes not to say her name and only removed my hand when I was sure that he understood my warning.

"As I was saying", Eric continued, "She Who Shall Not Be Named was a nice girl. She was kind, honest and well...she had integrity. A lot more integrity than Megan". He scoffed and rolled his eyes when he said Megan's name.

"But he only knew She Who Shall Not Be Named for a few months. I mean, I could tell he liked her but they hardly knew one another. I don't think it's her. It's something else and he needs to come clean about it because"... Eric didn't finish his sentence and the old man was almost tearing up.

I moved closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"The boss deserves to be happy, Kendrick. He's a good man. I see all the people he's helping and I see all the people you boys bring in here. They tell us that their lives would've ended had it not been for the boss. What will it take to make him happy?"

Eric cleared his throat and pretended he wasn't about to tear up talking about how unhappy Mathew had become.

"I better go finish up downstairs." He took the next flight of stairs and we started walking downstairs.

When we got to the restaurant on the ground floor, our mood was instantly ruined when we saw her. It was Megan and judging from all her bags, she had just come back from one of her daily shopping sprees.

The moment she saw Eric and I, the big smile on her face disappeared.

Megan is a year younger than Mathew, 27 years old. However, since Mathew is a werewolf and his aging slowed down after he turned 25, she looks slightly older than him. Humans think they look the same age, but magical creatures can tell she looks older.

All she does is spend Mathew's money. She's not interested in how he makes money or any of the businesses he runs. She doesn't seem to care that Mathew works non-stop and essentially does the job of 5 people every day. And yet, she still wants to claim that she cares for the man and deserves a chance to be with him.

"If it isn't the lovely Megan", I said in a sarcastic tone.

"Kendrick, how are you?" She was smiling, but her smile didn't reach her eyes.

She didn't even greet Eric so he took the opportunity to disappear into the crowded restaurant.

"I'm good. Did you go shopping again? That makes it 7 shopping sprees in 3 days, doesn't it?"

She immediately removed the fake smile on her face.

"You know, I miss the days before you and Mathew found one another. I think I preferred him with his amnesia", she said with a sly smile.

When Mathew introduced me to his human friends and employees 3 years ago, he told them that when he got adopted he had no recollection of his memories before the age of 10. He then told them that for a month or two he went to visit a specialist in Germany to get his memories back and after getting his memories, he immideiately went looking for his childhood best friend. I guess this was as close to the truth as he could get.

What actually happened in that month is that he got kidnapped by witches, tortured and drained of his magic, his magic was used to revive Raphael, he found out he was the werewolf king and then started saving the magical world from impending doom and destruction.

"Are you referring to the days when you left him after he found out you cheated on him?" I asked mockingly.

She looked furious. She didn't even have a come back. She just marched straight into Mathew's office with her dozens of shopping bags.

Megan came crawling to Mathew about two years ago after he was featured in the Forbes millionaires under 30 magazine. I don't think that was a coincidence.

He held out for some time and kept refusing her, but I guess the man got tired or lonely, or maybe even both. One night, Megan came to beg him to take her back like she had done everyday for months. She came while I was out on a break and I only caught her leaving his office. She walked out with a smug smile on her face and Mathew's scent was all over her. I knew the man had given into his deepest carnal desires.

Heavens know what they did in there because the place looked like it had been demolished afterwards. Ever since then, she's become a part of his life again.