The Alpha and His General

f i v e

It becomes a blur after that with the loud bells clamoring, gasps of delight echoing and deafening claps surrounding me in every direction. My heart is beating rapidly and I felt like any moment it would burst out of my chest, my lungs on fire. The lights spun and my entire body shook as I’m roughly shoved to the side, causing me to fall from the raised platform.

I was only mildly aware of my heels that broke from the fall and all I could do was stare at my King and his perfect mate towering above me. There was a sort of hallowed expression on the King’s face that I couldn’t decipher but his mate was all triumphant smiles and waves, her nails digging into his arm. 

They were perfect. That was all I could think about while I tried to stand up and as I met eyes with the man that saved my life, I found myself joining the clapping and forcing a brave smile. 

He deserved to find his mate and his happiness. It doesn’t matter who it was or her reputation. 

He was hers. And she was his.

Happy.

I was so happy for him.

I didn’t realize there were tears in my eyes until I felt a soft cloth pressed to my cheeks. 

“Wipe them away.” My new savior whispered gently and I turned to face him, hoping no one else saw how embarrassing I was being. 

“Caine,” I muffled out in relief. “Thanks.”

My comrade in arms dressed in his formal military attire merely gave a soft smile. “Anytime.”

I couldn’t bear to look at anyone else after that, forcing my eyes only on Caine who brought me away from the platform and towards the rotating waiter carrying flutes of champagne for days. 

Caine takes two and hands me both. “A big shame.”

I down the drinks like it was the only thing giving me life. “What is?” 

He looked at me for a long time, eyes never leaving my face. “I thought you two looked better up there than they do now.”

“Don’t be a hater.” I chastised lightly. “She’s our Queen now.”

Caine proceeds to take the entire tray from the waiter and waves him off, downing flute after flute. “Not yet.” 

“They look happy.” I say without looking at the new couple. Behind me, I could hear a council member excitedly announce the finding of the King’s mate to the crowd. 

“She looks happy.” Caine not so kindly points out. “He looks… the same? Stiff? Mad? I can’t tell he has a resting angry face.” 

“He’s happy.” I assured him and felt horrified at how heartbroken I sounded. “What man won’t be happy to find his mate?”

“No man if she’s the mate.” He countered hatefully. “From the perfect Queen Elizabeth to horndog Giselle? It’s a downgrade and everyone knows it.”

I grip his arm tightly. “If someone overhears us we’ll be dead before the morning.”

Caine shrugs with a roll of his eyes. “I’m only repeating what I’m overhearing from everyone else.”

I blink up at him in confusion and with barely any difficulty was able to hear the conversation of most of the people in our vicinity.

“Giselle? Why of all the women would he get her as a mate?”

“Our poor King!”

“What an awful pair.”

There were some good comments too but most seemed upset with the matchup. 

What did we expect anyways? Almost everyone here came to possibly be with the King and now someone else won it. Of course there would be angry people.

Giselle is his mate though. That should be the end of all of it. She should be treated as the Queen.

“Let’s get out of here.” I tell Caine.

He looked surprised. “Do my wolf ears deceive me? You’re willingly leaving a mandatory event?”

It hurt to agree but I nodded anyway. “Yes.”

“Miss Perfect General who never breaks the rules?” Caine mocked in disbelief. “Need I remind you? I had to drag you out by the ankles on the last mandatory event and you weren’t even required to go to that one.”

“Caine… please?” I nearly begged, which stopped him in his tracks.

“We can go to the outpost? I got a few—“ He paused, giving me the side eye. “Russian vodka stored.” 

My mouth opens agape. “You have liquor inside a border outpost?” 

“I got a lot going on!” He reasoned while dramatically embracing himself. “Drinking is my only solitude.”

I turn towards the exit, leaving him behind. “How are we friends?”

Caine follows right behind me, a knowing smirk in place. “I was your only option. It was either me or some old sweaty dude in a silk robe.”

His words were painfully and laughably true. A General is usually only a noble or a person with extremely good capabilities. The other Generals currently under the King are a lot older than us and prefer being stationed permanently in different cities than doing what Caine and I do.

We were the King’s hand. A match pair when it came to his bidding no matter how atrocious. 

“You’re a friend by default then.” I tell him flatly. 

He merely grins, not minding this. We were both our only choices unless he wanted to talk about the wonderful history of our amazing Werewolf kingdom with some of the other Generals over expensive tea and biscuits. “Still a friend. I’ll take that any day.”

I welcomed the chill outside of the castle the moment the cool breeze hit me but with the cold came memories of Eros Volkov… my King and his beautiful mate. 

Happy.

That’s all I forced myself to feel and nothing else. I shouldn’t care that she grabbed him almost instantly when they met or how her eyes lit up with elation that finally after everyone she’s been with, she got the biggest prize of them all, the best that the world could offer… him.

I spent many years following his every word, nearly worshiping his every step and I can’t help but feel like even if she is the most beautiful— I can’t help but feel like the King can do better. 

Who could be better? 

I didn’t know but as I stare up at the moon and take the deepest of breaths, I can only hope for the best for him. His work isn’t the easiest and the pressures are astronomical. 

At least he isn’t alone now. 

He actually has someone. It doesn’t matter who. At least it’s someone. 

I wonder if she’ll treat him right. I wonder if she’ll know how he likes to take his coffee, how he likes his soup boiling hot, or how he likes to keep a bottle of vodka in his office for difficult nights. I hope she understands that he needs a moment to process things when they’re first brought to his attention. I hope she’s patient when he starts getting angry or gives him the space he needs when he calls his sister for her opinion. 

There was so much to him that I hope she understands and takes care of. 

But overall, I hope he’ll love her and need her just like how his grandparents and parents are with their mates. Their mates were the ones that kept them afloat through all of it. 

These thoughts continued until we reached the border outpost. Werewolves in both wolf and human form litter the area while they smoked, fought each other and rowdily laughed towards the moon. A small group of patrols had just arrived which were quickly replaced by a new group that left to continue the watch. The outpost itself is a tall watchtower with at least five floors, panoramic balconies and a surprisingly large basement that held a storage, a small medical bay and a mess hall that served food for one hundred wolves at any given part of the day. 

I ate, slept, fought and bled in this very outpost. The better part of my training days were spent sleeping and dangling against the wires of the balconies, sometimes sleeping in a self dug frozen hole by the foot of the tower, the less than good parts were fighting off random rogues and other feral beings.

Who would’ve thought that years later after brutal training and an even tougher environment, this same outpost would be where Caine lords over. 

“I can’t believe you still chose to live here most of the time. Not when Generals are given a room in the castle.” I whisper breathlessly, staring up at the tower and remembering all the times I was excited about where I was going after the outpost. 

“I don’t like staying too long under the King’s roof.” Caine replies honestly, staring at the outpost as well. He looked to be reminiscing with me, mostly because we shared plenty of frozen holes in the winter together and endured snowstorms in that too. We were twin popsicles for years there. If I squint really hard in the dark, I’d still be able to see the small hole I dug all those years ago.

I scrunched up my nose in confusion. “Why? What’s wrong with that?”

He shrugged, waving away the werewolves that stood to attention for him and I. “I have this feeling he can sense things through the walls or something.”

“And that worries you because?” I snorted. Countless times the King would know exactly where I was and what I was doing at that exact second but I never found it bothersome. “You’re not hiding something are you?”

“No.” He suspiciously answers much too quickly. “I just prefer having my own space.”

“You consider this outpost as your own space? There’s about a hundred werewolves here.” I gestured to the loud men and women all around us. The energy is high despite the fact they must have been here for weeks already with very little breaks in between. There would be another hundred wolves that will replace them in a week or so but otherwise this is their home like it was mine. 

“Well, it wasn’t like before when we were at the bottom.” As if proving his point, he brings us up the stairs and towards the highest floor where his office is. 

I push open the doors and gawk at how different it looked from before. There were sleek leather massage chairs, numerous bookshelves filled with leather bound books, a small unmade bed shoved to the side and a fancy yet slightly clawed carpet to keep away the cold floor. The man in charge at the time I was here kept it old school and would only call on someone if they had an offense. If you ever did get called up here, it was never good. “Of course. Now you’re the Commander in Chief. The top dog. Sleeping all day and ordering people around by night.”

“Exactly and the King hardly goes here.” He says, closing the doors behind us. “It’s a win win.”

He would go here even less now. I almost told Caine out loud. With a kingdom and a mate, the King would be too busy for anything else. He would appoint us to places long term and have updates through reports rather than actually coming to check things physically. 

A lot of things would change.

“I wonder what they’re doing in there right now?” I ask, taking a seat on the couch that faces the snowy woods. In the distance, the castle stood tall and proud above everything. It twinkled in the night. Many times in the past Caine and I would climb a tree and see the castle. We would tell each other that one day after we worked our asses off, we’d be good enough to be there.

“Marking each other.” Caine answered without hesitation. “Wasn’t that obvious enough?”

My face went hot. “I didn’t mean the King and his mate!”

“Oh, my bad.” He mutters, handing over a glass of vodka and plopping down beside me. “Getting drunk then and planning the royal family’s continued bloodline.” 

Marking and a continued bloodline? Already? I didn’t think it would be so soon.

Ignorant of how I was feeling about his statements, he continued on while taking a drink from his own glass. “You know how much the council is dying for an heir.”

A pang shot through my chest and I winced. It felt like a dagger to the heart and if that wasn’t bad enough, each word from Caine was like a never ending jab to the ribs. To counter this weird feeling, I finish off my drink in one gulp. The heat of liquid traveled down from my throat and towards my already painful chest. 

Caine proceeds to refill my glass without needing any prompting. “I can’t believe that girl is the next Queen. What a way to tarnish Elizabeth Basco’s legacy.”

The retired Queen… she was the best that ever happened to the Kingdom. She was kind but unwavering, strict but fair and everything everyone needed. She ruled with a grace and wisdom that no other sovereign had ever done. I couldn’t imagine another Queen after her. No one would compare, not to disrespect of course Eros’ grandparents. They were great but there was just something about Elizabeth Basco that made her reign extra special. 

And now there will be a new Queen.

I continue to stare towards the castle, admiring its beauty and how larger than life it was. “What do you think she’ll be like?” 

Caine didn’t need to think about his answer. “Awful. Horrendous. The ruin of us all.”

I could only gape at his loose tongue. “You do not beat around the bush.” 

He didn’t look the least bit worried about his words as he slushed his drink around. “I followed Eros Volkov because I believed he and his family were the best of us all. Now, I just find it funny that his luck ran out.” 

“Maybe she’ll change with him. Like we did?“ I brought up hopefully.

He stiffened, eyes sharpening with seriousness. It was one of those rare moments where I saw the ruthless General that made his reputation from the ground up. “Like we did? The King didn’t change us, Astrea. He gave us an opportunity for a better life. This girl already has a better life and everything more yet she’s still a mess. Imagine if she has control over the entire Kingdom?”

“It would be the ruin of us all.” I repeated his words with a shudder. 

“Do you think it would have been different if Alexandra Volkov took the crown?” He suddenly asks me. There was an unnameable expression on his face. 

This particular question has been asked by many and I would normally take offense to it whenever mentioned but… I couldn’t help but wonder too. “Her heart wasn’t in it. She would have been miserable. I’ve met her about a dozen times and each time she was trying to get away from here.”

“She’s happier there isn’t she?” The way he asked this was so hopeful and wistful with his wide eyes and almost trembling lips. 

“I think they’re both happy with what they have.” It felt silly to care for the siblings in such a way but calming either way. They weren’t really our friends but a big part of our life revolved around them. 

Their achievements in some ways felt like our achievements, their victories were also our victories and somehow their happiness turned into ours. 

Maybe that’s how great leaders are… that or Caine and I are just much too invested with our bosses. 

“Whatever it is, it has to be better than our life before.” Caine whispered so softly that I almost didn’t hear. “Our life won’t be anything like it was.” 

“Never again.” I chanted and as if a dam broke, flashes of my time with the slavers flooded my mind. There’s no way we were going back. “Never again.” 

Caine respectfully didn’t push for more information about my past. He knew enough to know not to ask for more details. 

Taking another long drink that left fire at the back of my mouth, I stand from my seat and tear my eyes away from the castle I call home. “Well, General Caine, I think it’s time to call it a night.”

He points to his bed. “If you’re more comfortable here, I can take a bed in the barracks.”

I let out a snort. “Bed in the barracks? You’re that luxurious now? I always thought you were the frozen hole type of guy.”

Caine pounded his chest like King Kong would. “Times have changed, General Astrea. I’m the big man here now.”

“Sure you are.” I agreed with a roll of my eyes. “Anyway, thanks for the offer but I actually need to head back. I have to brief this group of werewolves in the morning.”

He gave a secretive smile. “Say what you will about the King and his new found mate but he always has you near him.”

“The King always sends me away.” I counter with a laugh. 

Caine shrugs, still smiling to himself. “Because he doesn’t have any other choice but every other time, he has you by his side. Always where he can find you. Think about it.”

I shake my head in disbelief. “Don’t be delusional. He’s our King. He keeps tabs on everyone.”

The glint in his eyes made my heart contract. “But not as closely as he does with you.”

I leave right after that, hurrying along the outpost and nodding to the wolves that stiffened at the mere sight of me. I wasn’t always home and many that knew me thought of me as the personal assassin to the King.

They weren’t wrong but that meant I wasn’t exactly the most popular person around. I was either feared or judged harshly.

When I got back to the castle, it was already dead quiet. With the lights low, the halls were empty and abandoned, having no remnants of the event. It’s as if the party and the glitz never happened. I suppose many of the attendees didn’t want to stay any longer than needed when the King had already found his mate. 

After all, the entire event was about this match. There was no need for anyone else if he’s found her.

Thankfully the General's quarters were far away from anyone else’s and were more secure so returning to my room felt like a relief because for the first time, I could finally breathe. Quickly, I removed every piece of expensive jewelry and tight clothing on my body. I don’t waste a moment in wiggling into my soft cotton night clothes and lay on the bed staring into nothing. 

“Happy.” I kept repeating to myself, my hand pressed to my face as if wiping at it would change how I really felt about the King and his new found mate.

I was happy.

The happiest.

Good on him.

With terrible thoughts that did not include the King’s happiness, I tethered between consciousness. I was mildly drunk and craving for more of the feeling as I try not to think about anything else other than memorizing every corner of my room. After I did that, I finally settled with staring out into the night for minutes, maybe hours. 

It was peaceful, calming but wrong.

There was just something about tonight that was wrong.

I curled up tighter, pulling my blanket all the way up to my nose and prayed for a new day. I don’t know what it is but as I’m half asleep, a presence jolts me awake.

“Astrea,” A voice spoke before a knock on my door rang through the quiet room. I would know who it was even if he didn’t call out my name. I knew him like I knew how to breathe. I knew him better than I knew myself. 

Him.

Him.

Him.

Here.

Hesitantly, I tore my eyes away from the waning moon upon the grayish sky. I didn’t even notice the time. Another day was about to begin. As werewolves with prolonged lives, time had very little meaning to us yet… today was different. 

Last night was different.

We were different, or was it just me? Had I changed?

I didn’t want to open the door. 

As if he knew what I was thinking, he knocked once more. “I know you’re awake. Come open the door. Please.”

The ‘please’ got to me and before I could have proper control over myself, I was already unlocking the door and not minding how strange it was for the King– a newly mated King– to come to my room at this time. The smell of him was quick to make its way to me, comforting and familiar like always but the sight of him was the one that threw me off completely.

He did not look like a man who just happily found his mate. No, it was the farthest from that.  He looked like he’d been through a war. If anything, he looked happier during a war than he does now. 

The King had dark shadows under his eyes and a disheveled hair that looked as though he’d been pulling at them. His clothes were a mess of what it was before, his sleeves rolled up as if he'd been thinking all night and wrinkles on his fine shirt that showed he’d been sitting in one position for even longer. 

My eyes automatically zeroed in on his neck and I let out a small breath of relief to find that Caine was wrong. The King was not marked at all. In fact, he didn’t smell anything like her which meant they didn’t spend time together yet. 

The King took a step closer and all I could see or smell or feel was him. The chill he brought with him was just another reminder that I wasn’t his mate and that he already has one.

Eitherway, I was still breathless by his presence and I felt dirty for it. He’s mated. My King is mated. I needed to stop this. 

Suddenly, he has me against a wall and the inappropriate visit seems to drastically double in shame. 

“I want you to imprint on me.” The King of the Werewolves demanded, his steely blue eyes burning through my soul.

I blinked, taking a step back from him until my back was completely pressed against the wall. “Y-your Majesty?” 

“I said I want you to imprint on me.” He repeated, his anger raising as his wolf threatened to come out. “Now.” 

“But— Your Majesty.” I stammered, my heart beating against my chest.

“Mark me as yours, General.” He ordered with a growl, giving his neck to me.