A bite from an Alpha King

Chapter 5: A bite

-Octavia-

I screamed as I felt the sharp pain from his canines deep in my skin. I struggled against him despite how exhausted I felt, but then an unbelievable warm feeling washed over me as I felt the connection to him strengthened. I couldn’t explain it but everything about him heightened. His scent. His touch. It was intoxicating as I rode the high of his canines deep in my skin. Then I felt the voices in my head. Voices I hadn’t heard in a long time. Voices of his many pack members. It overwhelmed me for a second, as I wasn’t used to blocking voices out of my head, yet as I began to block them out, one remained. His. His warm voice felt like it was warming me from the inside. Reaching those places in me, I thought had died. Places I had forgotten existed. I sighed deeply as I let the feeling of his warmth overwhelm me, but as soon as I got down from the high I felt, reality kicked in like the hardest punch I had ever received. I pushed him as hard as I could but it was like fighting against an iron wall. It wouldn’t move and instead I was the one that fell back. I landed on the ground looking up at a dark figure that was casting his long shadow over me. His eyes were shining so strongly it scared me. It was the first time in years, I had felt fear but the look he gave me sent chills through me.

“Submit,” he sneered lowly and I felt my wolf whimper inside of me as she forced my eyes down and my head to the side, revealing the now tender place where he had marked me.

I hated myself for submitting to him, but I couldn’t help myself. My wolf wanted to please him. She didn’t want our mate to hate us and she refused to let me fight him since she knew I aimed to kill. I couldn’t shut her out of my head because he had marked me. I gritted my teeth as I felt my head lower itself, not able to look at our mate. I tried taking control over my body but it was like it was no longer mine to control and I only ended up shaking from the wasted effort of fighting my own wolf.

“Lock her up,” I heard a deep voice say as I suddenly felt strong hands on my arms pulling me up from the ground.

I still didn’t dare look anywhere else but the ground as I was dragged away. It didn’t take long before they threw me hard on the cold brick ground. They didn’t even bother chaining me. Probably with good reason, since I had now submitted to the king in front of all of them. I didn’t even bother removing myself from the ground or try and do anything but lie there shaking and not able to understand what had happened. He had forced his mark on me and made me submit to him. I bowed to the king! I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t help but hate myself. It was shameful. My mind wondered about my father and what wouldn’t he think of me? I had now submitted to the man who turned his pack against him and killed him. How could I even call myself my father’s daughter?

“I’m sorry,” I whispered as I felt tears for the first time in years travel down my cheeks, leaving a burning feeling on my skin.

-Valerio-

“Aaaah!”

I threw the glass in my hand at the fireplace, making the flames flame up in a second as it was mixed with the alcohol before settling down again. I had barely even tasted the bourbon before feeling the anger spreading to every part of my body and I had to get it out of me. After ordering Octavia back to her cell, I almost ran to my room to try and calm myself. I poured myself a glass of bourbon, almost filling the glass all the way, knowing I needed it all, but I couldn’t control the unsettling feeling of my wolf running angry around inside of me because of the way I had treated our mate. I didn’t want it to be this way but I had no other choice, since she had tried to kill me. This only made me angrier and I ended up throwing the glass away.

“How is this going to end?” I asked myself in a low voice as I ran my hand over my head, pulling my hair slightly.

I hoped the pain could make me think more clearly, but everything just seemed like a huge mess. A mess I didn’t know how to clean up. I sighed as I leaned my forehead against one of the poles of the bed. I had no idea what to do next and it was killing me. I had everything planned out. Nothing really surprised me or caught me off guard. Nothing but Octavia did and it was driving me insane. What was this female doing to me in only a few hours?

“My king?”

I heard loud knocking on my door, as I knew my men wished to talk to me about what had happened out there on the fighting pit. I really didn’t want to have that discussion with them now, but I knew they were very confused and they deserved an explanation. I groaned before pushing myself away from the wooden pole and walking over to the double doors that had golden edges and handles. I stopped with my hands on the handles. I closed my eyes for a second as I gathered myself preparing to face the reality on the other side of the door. I opened my eyes again and pulled the handles down hard, opening the doors and looking at my most trusted men in front of me, who all had the same expression and the same question shining in their eyes.

What the hell is going on?

“It had to be done,” I said before storming past them and walking to my office knowing they would follow me.

“My king, what happened out there? How could you mark her?” Garrett asked, clearly angered by the fact I hadn’t given them a straight answer.

It was easy to see they were going insane from being in the unknown, but I wasn’t really ready to say the words I knew could explain everything. At least not until I had gotten a drink without tossing it across the room in anger. I opened the door to my office and immediately went over to the table with the bottles of alcohol and crystal glasses. It took me three drinks before I was able to turn around and finally face my men. The alcohol was running wildly in my system but I was finally able to calm my wolf down a bit before finding my seat behind the desk. I looked at my men, knowing how confused they still were. My eyes shortly landed longer on Zane. He seemed more pissed than confused. Did he hope I would kill his sister? Wouldn’t surprise me if he did. He was a snake. I only kept him close because I did indeed follow that old saying keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

“How could you do that, my king?” Garrett was the one who broke the silence.

I sat with my drink in my hand, turning it back and forth, as I studied the liquor in it. I waited a few seconds before placing the glass on the table and took a deep breath before finally giving my men the explanation they deserved.

“I couldn’t kill her,” I said bluntly, as I folded my hands in front of me.

My men looked at each other before Chris, another loyal friend of mine, stepped forth and looked rather pissed about being left in the dark like this. He was tall with blond hair and piercing blue eyes.

“What do you mean you couldn’t kill her? She deserved to die!” he yelled, earning agreeing nods from the rest of the men in the room.

“If I had killed her,” I started, “then I would have died too!”

I could see this only made them more confused. They looked at each other hoping one of them would have the answer to my coded words, but no one did.

“What do you mean, my king?” Garrett asked.

I sighed and rubbed my tired eyes before looking at them again. “She is my mate,” I said, and then the room was filled with an uncomfortable silence, as no one knew what to say next.

“What?” I heard Garrett whisper.

My eyes sought his and I could see he narrowed his as he tried to see if I was making some sort of sick joke, but I wasn’t. I was deadly serious and it scared him.

“I knew it the moment I held her by her throat as she came running to me with a knife.” I leaned back tired as I rubbed my chin. “I had hoped when it came down to it that it might not be true. She might not be my mate or maybe our bond was so weak since she tried to kill me and she didn’t seem affected by it, but as I stood in front of her knowing I could easily tear her throat out, I just couldn’t. I felt pain every time I hurt her and I could only imagine the agonizing pain I would feel if I was the one who took her life.”

Silence. No one dared to speak as they heard this. They knew as little as me as what to do about this situation and it scared all of us. Keeping Octavia locked up was only a temporary solution. It would drive me insane that I couldn’t be near her. My wolf was already howling for her but it seemed I was the only one who really was affected and that meant that if I let her out she would take the first chance she got to kill me. So I was in a rather difficult situation.

“So what do we do with her?” Evan, another loyal member asked, as he looked at all of us. Evan had dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was usually very quiet at our meetings and just did what he was ordered to without complaining. I was a bit surprised when I heard him talk.

“For now. Nothing,” I said, drawing my men’s attention to me. “If we let her out she will kill me and if we let her stay locked up I will slowly go insane.”

“Then how can we just do nothing?!” Chris asked, frustrated by everything that had happened.

“We still got some time before I won’t be able to leave her alone. That gives us some time to find a way to control her,” I explained. “The question is with what? She does not fear death. She has no loved ones since we took everything from her as a young child.”

My head was spinning and I groaned, irritated. Someone like Octavia couldn’t be controlled like that. She had nothing to lose, that was why she didn’t fear going after me. Her aim to kill me was really all she had. So how could I make her submit to me if I couldn’t threaten her? My jaw clenched, as I was deep in thoughts. My eyes went over my men three times before suddenly looking at Zane hiding a bit further behind most of them.

“Zane!” I yelled and he almost jumped on the spot as I pulled him out of his trance. He took a few steps forward as I waved him closer. “What do you know of Octavia’s real family?” I asked as I slowly formed a plan in my head.

“Nothing, my king,” Zane said, looking a bit confused by my question. “My father found her in the woods left to die. She is nothing but a rogue’s child.”

“Her eyes are silver,” I sneered. “Rogues’ eyes are black.”

Zane shrugged. He didn’t know what to say as I said this but I could see he was holding something back. He was moving a bit around on the spot, looking guiltier by the second. He knew something about her he wasn’t saying. I narrowed my eyes at him, forcing his eyes to seek to the ground, as he didn’t dare to defy me. He was a pathetic excuse for an alpha. I might be the king and had more alpha power than most, but the male didn’t even seem like he had a spine. It was hard to believe he really was the former king’s son.

“You don’t know anything?” I asked in a dark voice, showing I knew he held something back.

Zane looked around, not sure what to say. He knew he didn’t have much choice but to tell me the truth because, in one way or another, I was going to get it out of him, even if it meant torturing him.

“My father kept some journals,” Zane said in a low voice.

“You still have them?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Good. Bring them to me,” I ordered as I waved my hand at him, showing he could leave.

He didn’t look happy about my order, but couldn’t do anything but listen. So he left the room quietly, leaving me and my most trusted men alone.

“What do we do about the rumors that are going around my king? People are already talking. They saw everything,” Chris said as he looked worried at me.

I sighed and closed my eyes for a second as I thought over what to do about it. There wasn’t really any reason to deny what I had done or explain it. Their eyes hadn’t deceived them, so what was the point of trying to hide anything?

“Tell them the truth. Tell them who she is to me,” I said, seeing my men looking worried at each other. I knew they didn’t like the idea of the truth coming out, but what other choice did we have?

“And Selene?” Damien asked. “Alpha Michael won’t be happy that you marked someone else.”

Shit! I thought. My promise to him! I could still be mated to his daughter since I hadn’t completed the whole mating process with Octavia, but then Octavia was stuck with my mark forever and, to be honest, I would rather see my mark on Octavia’s light skin than Selene’s but I still had a promise to keep.

“Invite them here. I will tell them the whole truth myself and I will explain Octavia will only be kept alive for the sake of myself and Selene will be my queen.” I said as I dismissed them.

The thought of placing my mark on Selene and mating with her almost made me physically ill. I knew it was because Octavia was the one who was chosen for me. I would only want to mate with her. It was an amazing feeling as I marked her. It was good to hear her sweet voice inside of my head and feeling her warm body so close to mine. I closed my eyes as I remembered the feeling of her heat radiating from her. It became stronger after I marked her and when we touched, it was like lightening. Sending a shock of electricity between us. I smiled as I opened my eyes again and looked around myself. You always heard stories of what it was like finding your mate but the description never even came close to the real thing. I had thought if I ever found mine I would be able to fight it if I wasn’t satisfied with her but I knew now that that wasn’t going to be possible. She was mine, I thought, as I clenched my hand into a fist and no one was allowed to touch her except me.

***

The Silver Howlers

I closed the journal hard, leaving a small bang echo in the office. I was sitting alone in the office reading Alpha Xavier, the former king’s journal that his son Zane had brought me only an hour ago. I hadn’t really read them thoroughly. For now, I had only skimmed them looking for something I could use. I was in a bit of a hurry to have Octavia put in her place so I didn’t have to worry about her finding some way to try and come after me again. The latest of the former king’s journal was barely even text. More like crazy scribbles that couldn’t be understood. Then, as you moved back in time, going to some older ones, it was still a mad man’s talk as he wrote about conspiracies and how people wanted to hurt him and take everything from him. Then as I came to one of the oldest ones, he sounded saner and as I read about how he had troubles with the alpha counsel talking about how unsatisfied they were about the royal family, a name suddenly showed up. The Silver Howlers. They were wiped out now. Once they were, one of the largest packs there was and was almost considered royal because they were very strong and it was said the Moon Goddess had blessed their line. So, of course, people feared their power and didn’t want them to stay that way. My family was the one, who wiped them out, fearing they might take the throne from them. The alpha counsel, of course, was there to help wipe them out and that was how it was formed. The most loyal alpha’s to the throne each got a seat after helping destroy The Silver Howlers. It was so many years ago, it shouldn’t have been possible that there was actually any left, but what Alpha Xavier wrote couldn’t be mistaken. He was very clear about Octavia. She was the last Silver Howler and had blessed blood inside of her. This meant, with the right training and guidance, she was more than deadly. It was clear that that had been Alpha Xavier’s attention with her. He knew what kind of power that was hidden inside of her and he needed that, so he that if anything happened to him, he knew it wouldn’t be the last we heard from him. Just like Zane had told me, but there was something that Zane wasn’t right about. Xavier's first intention with her was to make her deadly, but as I read the books deeper, I saw he came to care for her and became unsure of his goal. He wrote he came to love her as if she really was his daughter and he planned to make her his heir.

“That snake,” I whispered to myself.

No wonder Zane had chosen to betray his father. He must have found the journals and read them and, as he learned his father wanted to replace him, he found the quickest way to end his life without having to do much himself. I shook my head. Xavier had been right in wanting to replace his son. He wasn’t alpha material, but I wondered, was Octavia? Silver Howlers was known to be a little extreme. They were more connected to their wolves and were controlled by their instincts more than the rest of us. It was probably one of the reasons they never got the throne. They liked living more like wolves than humans. So how much of a Silver Howler was Octavia?