The Alpha's Unwanted Princess

Chapter Three~An Act of Defiance

Nikolai was still grinning to himself as he headed to the training grounds with Roland. He knew exactly what Roxanne had been asking but he found he just had to take the opportunity to tease her. A Silver Wolf could never fill the shoes of his mother, one of the greatest warriors of her time. He knew that the she-wolves of Silver Moon were all brought up to be proper ladies. Taught only how to do mundane things like paint and play the piano. He assumed Roxanne was raised the same way, especially since she was a Princess. He chuckled as he remembered the look on her face as he described what his mother had done when she was Luna. 

“What has you smiling like a fool, Niko?” Roland asked, speaking to him less formally since they were alone.

“Oh, nothing.” He answered, giving Roland an innocent smile.

Roland shook his head at him. “You know, I think you may be underestimating the Princess. I mean, she did survive the attack yesterday.”

“Yes, but she did have you watching her back. All she did was run away.”

“What else are you supposed to do when you cannot see your enemy?”

Nikolai frowned at Roland in displeasure, he was ruining the fun by being logical. Nikolai knew that he was going to have to marry the pampered Princess but that did not mean he had to like her. It did not mean he could not see her squirm a little.

They made their way to the training grounds and started morning drills. Afterward, they directed a battalion of soldiers to the southern border towards the dark forest. Any good commander knew that you could not go into a battle blind. They needed more information about this enemy and hoped they could gather some by building watchtowers to look over the forest. Any glimpse of their movements or anything would be helpful. He also had a troop of his elite soldiers training to enter the forest and search for maybe a lair of some sort. He only hoped that they would not all get killed on their highly dangerous mission.

There were a few parts of the forest that they knew to be safe. It had been the same trail that the Princess had taken to get here which was why hearing about the attack had been such a surprise. There were a few other trails that were now overgrown from past battles with Silver Moon but the fact that no one had run into the creatures on that one trail for months was unsettling. Almost as if the Princess has been their target, yet they did not kill her when they had the chance.

Roland and Nikolai were just on their way back from looking over the construction of the towers when he spotted one of his soldiers, Hez, running towards him. He stiffened instantly at the sight of him knowing something terrible must of happened to the Princess. He had tasked Hez with following the Princess around today, to make sure she did not get into too much trouble.

“Alpha! You must come! Quickly!”Hez called out, still far away but close enough for Nikolai to hear him.

Nikolai took off at full speed towards the Castle, Hez turning around to lead the way. Suddenly, Nikolai regretted the taunting he had done this morning to the Princess. Not because he cared, he told himself, but if something did happen to her the alliance would be broken.

Hez headed in the direction of the stables and Nikolai’s anxiety rose. He caught up to Hez just before they made it to the stable building.

“What happened? Tell me!” Nikolai demanded, wanting to know what he was walking into.

“The Princess is about to ride that wild horse we have not been able to break for weeks now! She convinced a young stable hand that she could do it and before I knew it she was on the horse! I wanted to try and get her off but we did not want to spook the wild beast! I did not know what to do so I came to get you!” Hez explained.

Nikolai rushed past Hez, heading towards the stable yard. The stable Master was the best horse trainer they had and even he believed the horse was unbreakable. They were even thinking of just letting the horse go even though she was such a perfect creature. Strong and beautiful, she would make a great warhorse. Nikolai expected to see the Princess dead on the ground, most likely trampled. Instead, as he turned the corner, that was far from what he found.

The Princess was seated atop the black mare who seemed completely calm at the moment, only stamping her front hoof a little. She made a clicking noise and gave the horse a gentle nudge with her foot. The horse let out a snort before stepping forward, letting the Princess guide her in the circle around the yard. A crowd had gathered on the far side of the fence that faced the housing where the castle servants lived. Women and children had all stopped to stare at the new Princess riding the dark horse, even some soldiers had abandoned their training to come see.

She made another clicking noise with her mouth and gave the horse another kick, this time the horse going into a trot. Nikolai could feel his whole body tense. He really hoped the Princess was not thinking of doing anything too crazy with the horse. She made the noise again and the horse picked up even more speed. He had to admit she was a fine horsewoman. The way she controlled her and the way she seemed to trust her made it almost seem like they were communicating on some other level than just noises and touch.

He looked towards the Princess’ and saw a brilliant smile curving her lips, making her whole face come to life. She stopped the horse suddenly, looking in the direction of the far fence, a large open field laying beyond it. She placed her hands against the horse's neck, stroking her while she leaned down to whisper into her ear. The horse let out a high-pitched neigh while her front hoof scrapped across the dirt. The horse started to take a few steps back and Nikolai suddenly realized what she planned to do.

He moved to jump the fence but the horse already took off at full speed. Nikolai held his breath as they neared the other side of the yard, the horse preparing to jump. There is no way they are going to make it, Nikolai thought, preparing himself for the worst. The horse took to the air and jumped easily over the fence, landing on the other side. The Princess still perfectly seated on top of her. Nikolai just stared in disbelief, it was like they had flown rather than jumped. He had never seen someone do such a thing with such grace and ease before in his life.

The Princess laughed and then they both took off through the field, away from the yard. The young stable hand was still standing there watching and Nikolai strode over to him, catching his attention.

“Get my horse! Quickly!” He ordered, hoping he could catch up with them.

The Stablehand took off, not returning with his horse until what seemed forever. Nikolai had already lost sight of them but he knew which direction they had gone. He only hoped they had not changed direction so that he could find them. He took off toward the open field, not jumping the fence as they had. Zephyr, his horse, was a grey speckled stallion and he was fast, probably the fastest of all the horses. That was until the Princess had broken the black mare she now rode. They had taken off like lightning.

The field led towards a lake in the valley. It was their water supply and they had built a long canal system that led back to the village. The lake was surrounded by a forest on the northern side but on the castle side, there was a beach where a lot of the villagers would come to spend time on their rest days. He and Zephyr came over the hill and he could see the lake, along with a dark horse and a silver-haired Princess standing on the beach. He slowed Zephyr down as they came nearer, not wanting to get too close and scare the black mare.

“Roxanne! Do you have a death wish?” He said through gritted teeth in order to prevent himself from raising his voice too loud and spooking the horse.

She turned to look at him, a look of surprise on her face. The sun was reflecting on the water behind her, causing the surface to twinkle. The light catching in her silver hair making her look like she was almost shinning. She turned the horse so she could face him and then guided the horse alongside him. Nikolai sat there in shock, watching them approach. He had seen the stable master on this horse and he had nearly broken his neck trying to break the beast. Yet, this Princess seemed to have complete control of her. As if she had been riding her for years. 

“Not particularly, Alpha Nikolai,” she replied, merely smiling at him. 

“How…?” He asked unable to get the full question out since he was still in a state of disbelief.

“I trained with our stable master back home to train the horses when I was young. He said I had a natural talent with the beasts. I find horses the most majestic of creatures, don’t you?” she asked, reaching down to stroke the mare’s neck.

“Still, you should not risk your life so easily.” He grumbled, still unable to forget how close she had come to death by not only getting on that horse but jumping that fence.

Her silver eyes narrowed in his direction. She obviously did not like being told what to do.

“I see…” she replied before nudging the mare forward into a run. Heading back to the castle.

He sighed in exasperation. Did the she-wolf really not see how naïve she was being? Who cared that the stable master in Silver Moon had said she was good with horses? It was still no excuse to have gotten on top of a wild horse! He nudged Zephyr to follow after them, running up the hill and just narrowly catching up to them.

In fact, he was just pulling up behind them when the black mare began to slow down, the Princess wobbling in the saddle. She was wearing a dark blue velvet cloak and for a moment the wind caught it and it flew up and to the side, revealing the blood that was seeping through the back of her gown. 

Before he could pull Zephyr alongside them the Princess slipped from the saddle and onto the ground, the black mare neighing loudly and stopping in place. Nikolai cursed underneath his breath and jumped down off of Zephyr’s back, running towards the Princess. They had been close enough to the stables that the stable hand had seen her fall and was already running towards them. Nikolai leaned down and placed his ear close to her nose. She was still breathing. He sighed with a little bit of relief before he picked her up into his arms. The stable hand approached just as Nikolai started to run up the hill.

“Get the horses!” He ordered, running in the direction of the servant housing,

Gertrude was their main healer so she kept a house near the castle. Her home was a bit away from the other servant's homes, tucked away in a small glen in the nearby woods. He made his way up the path toward her home. She must have seen them approaching because she opened the door and began running towards them.

“Alpha! What is wrong with her?” She demanded, examining the Princess as much as she could while they walked up to her house and through the door. 

 “I believe she tore her stitches open.” He replied placing her down on the examination table in the front room. The soldiers who needed more intensive care were housed in a room next door.

“Tore? I told her to not go undoing my fine work!” She roared, moving the Princess to her side and undoing the back of her dress so she could take a look.  

Nikolai could not help but feel a little guilty. If he had not provoked her this morning with the story of his mother maybe she would not have got on top of that horse. Nikolai watched as Gertrude inspected her back. At first, Gertrude was grumbling about her waisted efforts when something caught her attention and caused her to pause and take a closer look. The Princess was groaning, waking up from her faint. She was laying on her stomach now and lifted her head to look around.

“What happened?” She asked, her voice sounding groggy.

“Stay still, I need to check something,” Gertrude ordered, placing her hand on the Princess’s shoulder, pushing her back down.

The Princess grunted but complied, obviously too out of it to protest. Gertrude went over to her workstation and started searching through the cupboards. She pulled out what looked like a purple flower of some sort in a glass bottle and then rushed over to a large book, flipping through the pages. There seemed to be some drawings on the page of different flowers with words written next to them. Gertrude looked over the page and then set down the jar before turning to Nikolai with a worried expression, one he was not used to seeing on her face. Gertrude never panicked and always seemed to know what to do in every situation but the look on her face sent chills down Nikolai’s spine.

“The Princess seems to have been poisoned.” She said, walking back over to her.

“Poisoned? When?!” Nikolai demanded.  

“It had to have been between the time I saw her last and now. Yesterday, when I stitched her up these were the same kind of wounds I have seen many times caused by the creatures. However, now they are infected. Not a typical infection either, see this discoloration around the wounds? This is a sign of wolfsbane poisoning.” Gertrude explained.

The Princess looked to have passed out again and her forehead was covered in sweat from a fever. Nikolai looked at her back, seeing the darkened color of the flesh. Black ooze dripping from the wounds and Gertrude grabbed a piece of cloth to clean it.

“Wolfsbane? How? We have not seen that plant around here in years. Our ancestors exterminated it because of how poisonous it was to our kind.”

“Well, it seems someone has found some. Someone here in this pack tried to use it to kill the Princess.” Gertrude said, having begun to remove the stitches from the Princess’ wounds. “However, what they don’t know is that I know how to eradicate the poison from the system. I have been studying the old healing methods knowing that one day that knowledge may come of use. She will be fine by tomorrow.” Gertrude assured him.

Nikolai let out a sigh of relief. He was proud that their pack had such a capable healer.

“I will leave her in your care,” Nikolai replied wanting to give her some space to work.

He stepped out through the door, taking in a breath of fresh air. He looked up towards the sky, glimpsing the clear blue sky through the treetops. It would soon be the warm season in Blood Moon which never really got that warm but was still warmer than winter. So much had changed since the last warm season. They were now in an alliance with their sworn enemy but they had gained a new enemy they knew so little about. They needed all the help they could get which was why they had made the alliance in the first place. Nikolai had expected there to be some rebellion against such an alliance but he trusted his people to follow him. He thought after this morning when he had shown the Princess respect that they would follow suit yet, it seemed someone was not as willing to accept her. Someone who was not happy about having a Silver wolf in their presence and they were willing to defy their Alpha to get rid of her.