The Alpha and Her Match

s i x

The Royal Council is coming.

I do not know what to think or what to feel about this.

I suppose in some way I knew this was going to happen. It was all a matter of when it would happen.

It’s not as if anyone hid my royal title from me. I have known I was a Princess for quite some time, though we all liked to pretend that I wasn’t.

I was just Anna here on my mother’s land. Training to be the next Alpha or anything really, but not… not to be a Princess. I never thought of myself as one.

Long has it been out of my mind that I had Basco blood. My grandmother has the name. She used to be the Queen but I always just moved past that fact.

The truth is, if uncle Eros is stepping down, then the council is out to find the next heir and a big possibility is that it’s me.

There are other options, of course.

There are nobles in line too. And uncle Eros’ adoptive son. He is supposed to be the first in line for the throne. That’s what everyone is saying anyway.

“Surely it’s his son.” Was the only thing I could say after my mother’s revelation. “Uncle's heir has to be his son.”

My grandmother is the one that answers, offering an encouraging smile. “We don’t know yet. All we have are speculations. The council will tell us when they arrive.”

“I never thought council members would come to our land.” My mother says, looking out the window of our dining room.

“Neither did I.” My grandfather Alek says with a shrug. “It can still be arranged though.”

“You’re not killing these people today, Trouble.” My grandmother scolds. “They’re not like before. It’s different now after we’ve cleaned their ranks. They're more helpful now.”

He didn’t seem slightly moved by this. “Not today, but maybe tomorrow.”

“The tournament is close.” I breathed out. “Did they have to choose today out of all days?”

“It’s probably nothing.” My grandmother tells me, but she has never been the best liar. “Enough about them. Let’s have dinner now. They won’t be here for awhile anyway. Customs and such.”

I scrunched up my face in confusion. “We don’t have customs.”

My grandmother merely smiles and ushers us to our seats. “For them there is and it takes hours.”

I sit down, my back facing the window as food is brought onto the dining table in large serving bowls. It had been weeks since I had a warm meal, living only off weird tasting plants and hard tree bark, but even so, with the pipping hot delicious dinner presented to me, I didn’t have the appetite for it.

All I can think about is the council members coming and bringing news I may not want to hear.

“Have some soup, Anna.” My grandfather tells me, ladling the soup into my bowl and then pushing it in my direction. “Eat more.”

I forced everything down my throat, my eyes flickering at the door each time.

Surely, it’s the son.

It has to be.

It’s got to be.

I tune out the entire dinner, my welcome home meal tasting like a send away. And then it was over before it even began, my mother already speaking to the border guards in her mind and my grandfather quietly staring up at the ceiling. Grandmother is still trying to be the light at the end of the tunnel, but I don’t know.

Somehow, I just knew... I think. I knew what was going to happen.

I smelled them before I saw them. Weirdly, they smelled of buttered lobster and sugar biscuits. I heard them next, elderly and firm, demanding the guards to hurry up as they have already wasted enough time.

“Customs? In a werewolf territory? How ridiculous!“ They complained loudly. “They can try to hold us off for as long as they can, but the truth is inevitable.”

The truth is inevitable.

How fitting.

My mother takes the front, her posture aggressive and rather combative— her usual stance when speaking with people she thinks will challenge her. My grandparents are on either side of me with each holding my arm as we waited in the living room.

Our living room is homey with an excessive amount of couches, plush throw pillows and furry rugs all placed in a wide and high ceilinged room. I try to camouflage myself under all of the fur and cushions as if that could hide me from this ‘inevitable truth’ because it was possible… I did it a lot when I was younger, not so much now that I’m an adult though.

The doors open in slow motion with the guards coming in first, followed by them. 'Them' are the members of the Royal Council, which is composed of high ranking noblemen and noblewomen. They are notorious for being incredibly annoying to the royal family, though I believe, these recent years, my grandmother and my great grandparents have been watching their members closely… making them a little more bearable than they used to be.

I have never met any of them. I have never met anyone from the castle that wasn’t uncle Eros or aunt Astrea. Capital people are extremely discouraged from entering our land ever since I was born. I did not know what I was expecting when I finally saw them. But when they came into our living room in flashy silk clothes and frowns on their faces, looking and looking and looking until their eyes finally landed on me, I was quite surprised.

Most people in our pack wore either thick fur coats or nothing at all, but these capital people wore clothing like it was a statement, like it was something to show off. It was colorful and all of it was studded with jewels that sparkled whenever the fire from the fireplace flickered.

They smiled when they saw me, eyes bright and lips pulling upwards. All of them bowed their heads low, their perfectly styled hair touching the ground. “Princess Anna, we finally meet.”

My royal title sounded strange to my ears. Princess. I have never been called a princess before today.

“We have come far to see you, Princess.” They we’re still bowing as they say this.

“You have to tell them to raise.” My grandmother whispered in my ear.

I cleared my throat. “Raise, please.”

“You are most gracious.” They all said in unison, smiling before their eyes flickered towards my mother who was glowering at them. “May we please have a seat, Alpha?”

“Must you?” My mother snapped. She has never been a fan of all things capital. “Will this take long? Can’t you do this standing up?”

They all looked between themselves. “Not long, but it is quite important.”

“Very well.” My mother says with a scowl, leaning against a wall with her arms crossed and looking ready to pounce. “Hurry along. We’ve all had a very long day.”

“Right.” The council members nervously replied, plopping themselves down on one of the couches. “Princess Anna, we have come today to give you news.”

My heart rate sped up. I was almost afraid to ask, “What news?”

“Your uncle, King Eros Basco, will be retiring very soon.” The silence in the room was deafening. Not even the fire crackled, the breaths were held and heart beats seemed to get lost in thick clothing. “And as tradition and custom, we have listed down every possible heir to the throne, the one that will replace him.”

A throat is cleared. I do not know who. “The next in line is usually the current monarch’s offspring, but since King Eros Basco was not able to continue the bloodline, we have concluded that the next in line for the throne is you.”

My grandfather’s hold on my arm tightens while the hold I had on the pillow on my lap nearly causes it to burst.

“You are the last Basco, the rightful heir to the throne.” There is pride when they say this, pride for me, pride for the name that I have that wasn’t Volkov. “We want to take you to the castle in the capital, to learn the way of the crown and prepare you to be the next Queen.”

I can feel my mother’s eyes on me. I can feel her watching my expression, my reaction.

I can feel her waiting.

I can feel everyone waiting.

Their gazes burned my face.

“What about Orion?” I asked, surprising myself that my voice was stable. “He is uncle Eros’ son and I have heard that he is next in line.”

The change in the council member’s faces was so blatantly obvious. They did not like Orion. They didn't have to say it. “He isn’t a Basco and thus has no real claim to the throne.”

“If I refuse, what then?” Because I will refuse. Because this isn’t my future. Because I am going to be the next Alpha. I have trained to be the next Alpha, not the next Queen. Not away from my home. Not there.

A horrified look flashed through their faces and I could sense the shift in their pleasant approach. “Then it will be Orion Vitalis.”

My grandfather is the one that breaks the silence with a mocking laugh. “But you just said he has no claim to the throne.”

The council members gestured to me. “That boy has no claim to it when a true Basco is in line. When a great Basco is above him.”

If I say no, it would be him. He will be the heir.

It could be Orion.

I do not know if I feel happy about this or upset. Whatever I was feeling, they must have seen it on my face because the council members brought back their attention to me.

“Princess Anna, the Bascos are a great family. A long line of your ancestors and family members,” They nod towards my grandmother who was once the Queen. “Have sacrificed much for this race, but it is a glory that you hold, the glory that only your family has, for the Bascos are the only ones that can take this responsibility without ever failing our people. It is a heavy burden, a great burden, but it is for the betterment of us all. You are royalty. You have a duty to uphold and a destiny to fulfill.”

The Volkov in me wants to give them all a finger, shout a curse and laugh in their faces, but the Basco in me… it stirs, their words like a call to something inside of me that I didn’t know was there.

“The next in line is a boy we do not see fit, the one after that, a noblewoman we do not trust, and the next and the next and next. If not you, it would be them and we might be in ruins if it is.” They speak in a grave tone like to lose the crown to someone that isn’t a Basco is the highest sin anyone could ever commit.

“But this is all up to you.” My grandmother interjects. “It’s all a matter of what you want, Anna.”

When I was little, my father would tell me a bedtime story and it was about the most beautiful Princess living in a very big castle. She was the strongest, the bravest and the wisest. A legend with a hunger for what the world has to offer. All of her people loved her, depended on her, but she didn’t want to be there. She didn’t want to stay.

She wanted to be more.

She wanted to be herself.

I love that story with all my heart and it is only now when I look at my mother that I realize the story he used to tell me was actually about her. I never connected the dots. She never talked about her life before becoming Alpha.

My mother was that Princess. The one that left her castle, the one that chose herself.

Would I choose the same path as her? Would I choose myself or would I answer this call that the Bascos seemed to be cursed with?

I stood up from my seat, abandoning the cover between my grandparents and the pillows. “I need time to think.”