Rejecting the Alpha Prince

3

ERIK

Fuck, I gasped, terrified, flying into the shower. It can't be true, it can't be true, it can't be true!

The water was scorching hot, but I barely noticed it. I could only feel her - her scent, the way her arms had tightened around my neck, the tickle of her ruffled hair under my chin ... her voice, pained and tense. Her face, scrunched in pain.

Amelia Hawthorne. Daughter of the Alpha of the Red Bloods. By the f*****g Goddess, a damned Red Blood.

No, no, no ...

I didn't know how I'd managed to stay calm and affable while helping her - it had been a genuine miracle, because inside ... I'd started screaming as soon as I'd seen her, standing and shaking in pain in the middle of the woods.

Screaming in pain, in anger, in despair.

A sob grew in my throat, and I pulled my wet hair as tears escaped from my clenched eyes.

It's not f*****g fair! Why? Why me? I don't want this!

Squeezing my eyes shut didn't help either. The image of that girl was burned into my mind. Her brown hair, decorated with delicate, natural highlights, falling in soft, natural waves down her back. Her face, so gentle, so innocent ... her skin, as white as snow, and her freckled cheekbones. Her lips, so rosy and full. Her body, so elegant and supple.

Stop it! For f**k's sake, Erik, stop it!

But I couldn't. My wolf had gone completely, irretrievably mad, and it was getting harder and harder to keep him under control and relegate him to the deepest recesses of my self, where he couldn't disturb me. In his mind, a single word was churning, and he wouldn't stop repeating it over and over again.

Mate.

There must be a mistake, I thought. There must be. I don't ... I can't. I can't.

Because if my wolf hadn't been wrong ... the consequences on me, on my life and on my family, not to mention on Amelia, would have been devastating to say the least.

"Erik?"

The water was boiling, but when I heard my mother calling me from beyond the bathroom door, I could have sworn it had turned to ice. What the f**k was she doing there?

No, no ...

"Erik, darling, the car will be here in fifteen minutes," mom said. "You need to hurry up".

Gods in heaven.

I quickly sifted through my options: I could tell her I wasn't feeling well, but that would have been a bad idea. If there was one thing I knew about my mother, it was that she was as stubborn as a mule. If she feared for my health, there was no way I could keep her away from me - she would have broken down the bathroom door, only to find out that I wasn't really sick. Although ... well, I couldn't say I was truly okay at that moment. My stomach was so full of acid that I could feel it climbing up my esophagus.

I could tell her I wasn't ready - tell her I'd meet up with her and dad at the party, then not show up and say that ... that I'd fallen down the stairs, that I'd hurt myself and didn't feel like going, and that I hadn't called her and dad so they wouldn't worry. But she would have never allowed me to travel alone - those were the safety protocols, so she would have left Uncle Franz to wait for me. And he was never, ever going to play along with me on this one.

Or ... I could lie. Print a big smile on my face, pretend everything was fine, and go to the party. Figure out how to fix the situation - because that was a very unpleasant situation that had to be fixed, and quickly too.

Objectively, that was the only viable one. The riskiest, too. Because the chance that I wouldn't be able to lie right, or that, at the party, my wolf would do something terribly stupid upon seeing Amelia... was high. Far too high for my liking.

All right, I told myself. All right.

"OK!" I shouted to Mom. "Fifteen minutes, got it!"

Fifteen minutes. I had fifteen minutes to finish my shower, make myself presentable and calm down, fifteen minutes to become the perfect Prince of Wolves, son of Xavier and Emily, Alpha and Luna of the Blauer Mond pack, future King and Queen of the Wolves.

An almost impossible task.

Almost.

"Are you okay?" my mother asked me, holding my hand. I nodded quickly, settling more comfortably into the seat of the car that was taking us to the Red Blood pack house.

With all the stuff she was dealing with as princess and ambassador, there was no need to unnecessarily worry her with things she had no reason to worry about anyway: this was neither a war nor a diplomatic crisis. It was just a bad bond that I could deal with very well on my own.

Nothing but a bug on the big windshield of my life.

My wolf stirred inside me, growling. He didn't appreciate that I held that bond in such low regard, and for the umpteenth time that day, I locked him back into the depths of my mind. Unlike me, he did feel a connection to that land: he wanted to lead that pack, he felt born to do that.

The disgust this caused me was impossible to put into words. It was yet another thing that tied me to Clayton, another chain that kept me attached to that burden. Not just the blood right, but my wolf's desire to see it fulfilled.

I won't take his place. It wouldn't even be right, anyway. The Red Bloods don't want me and I don't want them. A recalcitrant Alpha wouldn't make a good leader, would it?

"Then what's with the sulking face?" mom asked, looking at me with that 'I know you since you were a cell, you can't fool me' look mothers only could master.

Of course, she had to read everything in my face.

"You know I don't like these parties," I sighed. "And considering where we're going ..."

Mum quickly lowered her gaze, but then smiled. "Lucas and his family are good people, baby. And anyway," she added, winking. "I may have asked your sister to call me at a certain time for a certain emergency ..."

I rolled my eyes, chuckling. Of course she had - Mom might have been the epitome of the perfect princess, always elegant in manner and appearance, but she was also Emily McNamara. And if there was one thing I knew about her, it was that she did whatever the hell she wanted. Being a princess, after all, had its advantages.

"We'll be out in two hours at the most," Dad added. "There's no need for us to stay longer. It's not such a big pack, after all."

A half-truth. The Red Bloods weren't an important pack on a diplomatic level - sure, Lucas had raised them up after the war, but they were far from what they were before - but the same couldn't be said on a personal level. That, after all, was the pack from which my mother had run away, the pack of which I should have become Alpha. It was the pack that, under Clayton's orders, had waged war against the Royal Family.

And for which it was, to this day, under close, close observation. Both by us and by the sovereign pack of Oregon, mom's birth pack, the Crescent Moon. Together, of course, with all the other packs that had followed Clayton.

However ... two hours would have been enough. More than enough, in fact, to remind those assholes to whom they owed their loyalty and gratitude for not being reduced to a pile of ashes.

A large elm appeared to my right, and I gritted my teeth as a wave of power washed over me. It was just for a second, but it was like crossing a wall of treacle - we were officially in Red Blood territory. And almost immediately, just as a few hours earlier when I'd brought the girl home, I felt my blood and my wolf begin to roar and sing, to respond to the inescapable connection I had with that place.

Make it stop ... make it stop!

And just as it had come, that power disappeared once we crossed the border. Mom caressed my hand, an understanding smile on her face. A smile that said 'you don't have to do anything you don't want to'.

Because she knew what it was like to be forced into a role you didn't want. To serve people who'd never done anything for you but look away.

"Five minutes," the driver said, and Dad nodded, thanking him.

Mom's hand tightened around mine - not because she was afraid and was seeking comfort, but to support me. To keep me from falling apart.

Every second we were closer - to the Red Bloods and Amelia.

My goodness, Amelia.

She was no ordinary she-wolf. She was the Alpha's daughter: there was no way she wouldn't be there, despite the wound. She was too high in the pack's hierarchy. It would have been impossible not to meet her, not to smell her, not to ...

Fuck.

I'm in deep s**t. Like, Marianne's Trench deep.

The car began to slow down.

No, no ...

Lights appeared in the distance. A house - a large mansion festively decorated for the occasion.

Dozens of people were gathered in front of the door, waiting: first and foremost ... Lucas and his family.

The car stopped.

"All right," Dad sighed. "It's showtime, fellas."

"Xavier" mom sighed, rolling her eyes.

Calm down, I said to myself. For f**k's sake, Erik, stay calm and breathe. Be good, play your part, and everything will go just fine.

"His Royal Highness Prince Xavier, Alpha of the Blauer Mond pack! Her Royal Highness Princess Emily, Luna of the Blauer Mond pack! His Royal Highness, Erik, Prince of the Wolves!"

Mom and Dad gracefully stepped out of the car, smiling, and with a titanic effort of will I followed them, a diplomatic smile plastered on my face, focusing on everything but that scent ... and that absence, so discreet and so blatant at the same time.

Where is she? my wolf asked. Where is she?

I was officially f****d.