The Wolf King's Second Chance Mate

New Beginnings

Lyria packed up her scarce personal belongings. She only had three dresses she thought were nice enough to bring to the castle, one of them being the one she had worn the night before. The other was a light pink with silver stitching at the waist and the neckline, which Ghermen had gifted her for her twentieth birthday. The last was a gown of pure white, with a blue silk cape and blue silk belt that could attach and detach from the dress. Aertis had given her that one. She packed away a silver locket, the only jewelry she owned. Warriors didn’t wear silver, which was poisonous to werewolves if it came into contact with the blood. Worn on flesh it was fine, but Warriors bore too heavy a risk of injury to wear silver. Lyria hadn’t put the necklace on since she had been named a Warrior.

Last, she packed up a selection of her books and a journal. She packed a few books of astronomy, several books on myths and lore, a few stories she hadn’t had the chance to read yet, and her worn-out old copy of Wolf Tales.

She took a look around, trying to think if she had forgotten anything. After a moment, she folded a pair of britches and a plain linen shirt into the small bag she planned to take with her. 

Decisively and suddenly, she left the room, walked into the living room, and then out the door. As she strolled along to the town square, where Duke Greyfur had told her to meet to leave with the delegation. 

“But,” he had said to her, “be careful. Until you’re in Cyrrillest, he’s still your Alpha. And I wouldn’t recommend letting him know that you know how things will change once you get there. I doubt he would like that too much.”

She had agreed, and so when she approached the town square to see many of the townspeople milling about, she acted as meek, keeping her head low to avoid attracting attention. Aertis saw her and skipped up to her, wearing a long pale blue dress. Lyria chuckled. They had worn the same dress, the same dresses they had bought for their first shifts. Lyria and Aertis had been friends since they were just tiny pups when they both spent a lot of time at the packhouse with their parents. So they had purchased matching dresses, just as they had always dreamed of doing. Lyria had her first shift over a year before Aertis, but no matter. They had both worn the dresses to their Shift Banquet, and it was special all the same.

“Nice dress,” Lyria giggled. Aertis spun around in a circle. Laughing, she took Lyria’s hand and spun her about, until they both stopped, out of breath. Without dropping Lyria’s hand, Aertis ran toward where the other packmembers going to the capital were gathered. 

“Who is coming with us?” Lyria asked Aertis.

“Well, you and Aidria, of course. Shame about her coming, but I guess there isn’t anything we can do about that one. A small handful of our Warriors. Alpha Windmere, and Lyle, of course. Your mother and Imrea are also going, plus a few other Omegas. Our contingent is pretty small, since the trip only takes a few hours. I think the packs that are further away will take a larger group but we don’t need too many.”

Lyria nodded. She was distracted, looking at the piles of luggage. Almost everyone seemed to have a larger bag than her. Aertis had a massive trunk, which Lyria recognized immediately, because Aertis had it covered with embossed leather. Her initials were embossed on the leather.

Off to one side, Lyria saw the Omega luggage, smaller than her bag. Most Omegas probably didn’t have more than one or two spare outfits, and not much else to their name to bring along with them. She hesitated with where to put her things.

“Hey, Lyria,” Aertis said, reaching over and taking the bag, “let me put this down for you.” Aertis confidently strolled over to the large pile of trunks and chests and set the bag down beside her own trunk.

“Oh, Aertis,” Aidria called over to them, “you’ve brought so much stuff. A trunk and a separate smaller bag? You could probably fit, what, a single dress in there? Oh,” she turned to Lyria with mock surprise, “dear, did you bring any luggage? Wow, so brave. I guess if I didn’t really have much in the way of a chance at this competition, I wouldn’t bother either. Still, I can’t believe you didn’t bring even one change of clothes.”

“I did, Aidria, that was my bag Aertis just put down.”

“Oh, wow! The cute little bag? So you brought one extra dress? How sweet, that must be all your clothes, then, I guess. So sweet, so tiny. I guess that’s what being an Omega is like, then.” She turned, letting her hair cascade down her back as she did so. She gave a little fake laugh, and as she turned, Aertis sneered at her.

“Just ignore her,” Aertis mumbled under her breath, putting an arm around Lyria’s shoulders. 

“Take your own advice,” Lyria teased, tapping Aertis’s cheek gently as she continued to scowl.

“Just get in a carriage,” Aertis said, jokingly pushing her toward the closest one. “We get to have one to ourselves!”

“To ourselves?” Lyria said, raising one eyebrow. “Entirely?”

“Well… Lyle is going to be with us. But that’s it!”

Lyria rolled her eyes, but as she did so, she smiled indulgently at her best friend, who squeezed her shoulder gently and said, “thanks, I love you,” after her, turning to look for Lyle.

Lyria gave a little wave as she climbed into the carriage, sitting on a bench and stretching out to indicate that she would be occupying one entire side to herself. Lyle and Aertis could share. She felt confident they would have no objection.

Before they could climb into the carriage after her, Alpha Windmere’s head popped into the carriage. 

“You can’t possibly be planning to wear that,” he snarled angrily. Lyria looked down at her dress. It was a simple color, but it suited her nicely, and was comfortable for the journey to Cyrrillest. She looked back up at Alpha Windmere, confused. “It is so plain, I might just fall asleep. You expect any man to look at you in that? Let alone a king?” He scoffed. “Look at my daughter,” he said. Begrudgingly, Lyria looked out the window. Aidria was indeed dressed in a rich, and uncomfortably stiff looking, velvet gown. “That is how a potential bride of a king should dress. Not only are you plain, you match a non-competitor, how can you stand out when you look just like another person.”

“Aertis and I don’t look anything alike,” Lyria protested.

“That isn’t the point!” Alpha Windmere said, raising his voice. After a second, he said, in a more measured calm, “just be prepared to change when we arrive. I hope you have something suitable.”

“I’m not sure where you expect me to have gotten something suitable,” Lyria said in a flat, angry tone. “Considering I get half the wages of other Warriors and I had to fight you on even that much.” 

Alpha Windmere drew back for a second, stunned at her tone. Then he said, “be grateful I let an Omega welp like you make anything above the usual rate for your… station.”

Lyria opened her mouth, ready to retort that Warrior was her station, but then she remembered what Duke Greyfur had said. She closed her mouth, her jaw clenched, and looked to the ground. 

“Yes, sorry, Alpha.” She looked back up at him, trying to appear contrite.

A moment later, while Lyria and Alpha Windmere were still staring at each other in icy silence, Lyle and Aertis approached the carriage. Lyle’s deep, rumbling voice said something unintelligible and Aertis’s girlish giggle filled the air, getting louder as the couple drew closer.

“Father,” Lyle says imperiously, in a tone of overt formality. The Windmeres were not like the Moonglow family. Their interactions seemed devoid of any real affection, or even familiarity. Lyria had always suspected that Alpha Windmere knew Lyle about as well as he knew Imrea, and his other children he probably even less well.

“Son,” Alpha Windmere said, withdrawing from the carriage so that the way was clear for Lyle and Aertis to enter. “Have an… enjoyable journey,” he said to Lyle, his eyes lingering on Aertis. To his credit, Lyle rolled his eyes slightly and didn’t respond. 

Lyle Windmere was an interesting wolf. He was less overtly cruel than his father, not just to the Moonglow family but in general. However, he was also less of everything else. Less intelligent, less interesting, less charming. Lyle Windmere was not a harsh, bullying person. He just wasn’t much of anything at all. He was very good-looking, and Lyria knew he harbored a secret fondness for the little sparrows that lived in the eaves of the gymnasium where the Warriors trained. She had seen him feeding them.

But Lyle Windmere was also more than happy to go along with his father’s treatment of Lyria and her family. For most of her life, he had treated her unkindly in front of the Alpha and with complete indifference when he wasn’t around. Lyria had never known what Aertis liked about Lyle. But once Lyle and Aertis discovered their mate bond, Lyle stopped antagonising Lyria, even when his father started it. She supposed he now had an ‘excuse’ not to get involved.

She found it hard not to resent him a little bit anyway. For Aertis’s sake, she tried not to.

“Isn’t this fun,” Aertis chimed in, her and Lyle comfortably settled opposite Lyria. “My best friend and my mate, off on an adventure.” Outside, the Omegas were loading the last of the bags onto the backs of the carriages.

Lyria smiled thinly at Aertis. Glancing to Aertis’s left, she saw that Lyle was doing the same, and they caught each others’ eyes. They both began to laugh, awkwardly at first, but then genuinely. After a moment, Aertis joined them.

“To new beginnings?” Lyle said, looking at Lyria.

She nodded. “New beginnings,” she echoed, just as the carriages began to move.