The Lonely Lycan Alpha Queen

Chapter Four

MALIKA’S POV

I thanked Elliot for his help and, as promised, had Ward take a photo of him with my Lycan. He was so excited he couldn’t wait to go brag to his friends.

Just before he left, we had him point us in the direction of Mr Felon’s place as I decided that was my next stop. I was hoping he would be willing to talk since his own king had done nothing about his missing mate.

We took off in the direction Elliot had given us and a few minutes later arrived at the outskirts of the town closest to the mountains.

I took a moment to shift and dress, as I figured the guy probably wouldn’t react well speaking to a massive Lycan if he was a little unhinged.

We slowly made our way towards the front of the property and a man came into view. He had his head down and appeared to be talking to the flowers.

“…I wish you were still here. Are you coming back soon? I really miss you. I told the king but… but he…” The man started to sob.

I gave him a moment before I cleared my throat, making him aware of my presence. He jumped, startled and grabbed the shovel standing nearby.

“Who… who are you, wh… what do y… you want with me?” the man said, shaking the shovel in our direction, his wild eyes huge and unblinking. I slowly raised both my hands and took a step away to show I was no threat to him.

“Forgive the intrusion, Sir. My name is Malika, and I heard your story from someone in town and wanted to come and hear it from you.” He watched me intently.

He studied me for a minute and finally he spoke. “Why would you care about me? You’re not a feline.”

“You are right, I am not a feline, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about people. I’d like to hear about both your wife’s disappearance and the Baihu that took your livestock. If you are willing to sit down with me and talk?” I said softly.

He eyed the guards and looked back at me. “Fine but those…” He said, pointing to my guards in wolf form. “...Can stay outside, I don’t want massive wolves wrecking things.” I nodded in agreeance and Ramon and Evander growled lowly.

“Stand down, he isn’t a threat to me and, besides, Ward and Ajax will be with me.” I mind-linked my two guards in wolf form and they huffed before sitting down at the gate. They looked like sentries sitting on each side of the footpath.

Mr Felon walked up his steps and into his house, holding the door open indicating for us to follow him inside. Ward went in ahead to check for potential threats. Once he was satisfied, I entered the house with Ajax hot on my heel.

Mr Felon led us into his loungeroom and gestured for us to sit on the worn couch. Although it was a three-seater, it was very squishy with two burly guards, one sitting on either side of me.

Mr Felon took a seat across from us. “So, with the number of guards you've got, I’m guessing you’re someone pretty important,” the man said, still looking at me unsurely.

“Yes, you are right, I am,” I said, not giving him any further information.

“Going to tell me who you are girly? I don’t like strangers” he said, watching Ajax and Ward as he spoke to me.

“I have told you, my name is Malika,” I said. I feared that if I gave him my title he might clam up, given his own King didn’t help him.

“And your title?” he just kept pushing and I could see I had no choice but to tell him who I was.

“Very well, I am Alpha Queen of the Werewolves.” His eyes bulged.

“What are you doing here in the Felidae Kingdom and why are you worrying about stuff that has nothing to do with you?” He asked. It was a fair question.

“I am here on a break, worrying about things because it seems your own King is not. I don’t like to hear about people suffering, whether they are mine or not. If I can help, I’d like to try.” I told him honestly.

He was quiet for a good while. “Well, you can call me Frank,” he said, and held his hand out across the coffee table that was between us.

I shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Frank, these are two of my guards, Ward and Ajax. The two wolves out the front are my other two guards, Ramon and Evander,” I said to him.

“Y’all want something to drink?” he asked, but I just shook my head no.

“Thank you, Frank, but I’d rather hear what you have to say about your mate’s disappearance and the Baihu. Do you think the two are related?”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t think they are. Some men turned up with no scent so I couldn’t tell what they were. They didn’t know I was there as I was in the shed. I had heard a strange noise but by the time I got back around to the front of the house, they were pulling away. I tried to give chase, but I lost them. I couldn’t pick up any scent, not even my dear Holly”.

Frank had tears dripping from his eyes. Who on earth would come and steal a feline and what kind of people hide their scent?

I had heard over the years that there were groups of people that had worked out how to hide their scent but I had never come across anyone yet that had done it. My mind was swirling with all this information.

“So, what of the Baihu?” I asked after Frank had calmed himself down.

“Oh, I think he was just hungry. I went out to check what was causing my livestock to carry on one night and I spotted it with my spotlight. It was the largest tiger I have ever seen, its fur was white as snow with black stripes, and it had bright blue eyes that seemed to glow. I could tell he was a shifter but when I yelled out to him, he didn’t react, he just took off with my lamb towards the mountains. I let the King know about both incidents and he said he would look into them, but I have heard nothing about either since, and every time I try to get in to see him, they won’t let me in.”

Frank slumped down in his seat looking completely defeated. I couldn’t blame the guy; his mate was missing, and no one was doing anything about it.

Then he has an encounter with a tiger shifter long thought extinct and he still gets ignored. I think I needed to have a word with the Felidae Kingdom’s so-called King.

I chatted with Frank for a few more minutes and promised that I would see what I could find out for him. We left Franks and walked on towards the mountains.

“Shouldn’t we be headed back now, Mali?” Ward asked as I walked without paying much attention to where I was going.

“Yeah, we will soon. I just want to get a closer look at these mountains, see if I can see any obvious caves where the Baihu might be hiding.” I replied as I continued to walk towards the foot of the mountain.

I felt drawn to these mountains. I couldn’t explain it. It was like a magnetic pull, like I just had to go there. I had a feeling I would be heading back here tomorrow for a more extensive exploration.

We had a quick look around the base of the mountain. There were many places, higher up that looked like they could house a cave, but I really didn’t have the time today to go exploring.

Once I was satisfied with my quick look around, I shifted, and we started back towards the King’s castle. I needed to have a very serious conversation with the Feline King.

We had only gone about a five-minute run from the base of the mountain when I caught the distant sound of a roar in the wind. It raised all the hairs on the back of my neck, and I shuddered involuntarily.

My guards didn’t react, we had heard a lot of roaring and growling in our short time here in the Felidae Kingdom. It comes with the territory of having all matter of large cat shifters.

There was something about this roar though. I had the feeling it was our Baihu, and I knew I was most definitely coming back tomorrow. I was planning on exploring that mountain and, with any luck, we could find the once thought extinct Baihu.

We made our way back to the castle and I immediately sent Ajax to go and let the King know I was back and would like to talk to him at his earliest convenience.

I jumped in the shower and threw on some clean clothes. By the time I returned to our central living area, Ajax was back advising me the King would be ready in half an hour and I was to meet him in his office.

This was not going to go how I assumed he thought this meeting was going to go, but I would not stand by and let a King neglect his people.