The Alpha's Princess Mate

4

CAROLINE

I looked at the great portal in front of me; a shimmering midnight blue oval, roughly the size of a door, in whose infinite depth so many inexperienced travelers had been lost forever.

I sighed. I had no desire to return to London, to my life as a princess by day and an assassin by night. Why couldn't I stay in the Fae realm, where I felt alive, where every single cell in my body vibrated and thrummed in response to nature and magic?

"It's time, dear," my grandfather's low, warm voice rang out behind me, and I swallowed.

"I know," I muttered, the words struggling to get out. “But… I don't want to go back. I don't want to know why my father is calling me back so urgently”.

Most likely, I knew, it was for some mission: as Captain of the Elite, the dirtiest and most delicate missions were my responsibility. My father rarely summoned me with such urgency - but when he did, it always ended up with someone's blood on my hands.

But this, to my grandfather, I did not tell. He knew nothing of my other activities - it was a secret known only to my father and the other members of the Elite. Not even my mother knew. Children, among the Fae, were rare and precious, and if my grandfather and my mother ever found out that the only heir to the Fae throne was involved in such dangerous activities… I didn't even want to know what might happen.

"Sir Gavin will come with you," Grandpa told me. "I will feel better knowing that my most trusted warrior is in charge of your protection."

I nodded, relieved. Gavin was a distant cousin of mine, and my best friend; I couldn't have wished for better company.

"I'll be back as soon as possible," I promised, turning around and meeting his smile.

“And we'll be here waiting for you,” he muttered, his eyes full of love and warmth.

I'd never liked cheesy farewells: so, I just smiled and nodded.

I turned my gaze back to the portal, focusing on my father's private home in Kensington, where he'd asked me to meet him. The house where I was born and raised.

Swallowing, I squeezed Gavin's solid, warm hand, and we entered the portal.

I hated traveling through portals; I only used them because they were the only means of communication between the human and the Fae world. The feeling of being sucked in and then falling into the void, and the terror of losing concentration and getting lost in between worlds, in the immensity of the Universe, were things that I would have gladly avoided. Pocket portals, small enchanted stones with far more precise transport spells, worked far better than those huge old-fashioned ovals - but my grandfather, who was pretty old-fashioned, wasn't really fond of them.

Kensington, Kensington, Kensington, I repeated in my mind, over and over, concentrating on the house's door… until we landed violently on the freshly mowed lawn. I'd been lucky, and landed on a chaise longue; but Gavin, just inches away from me ...

"I'm afraid that's Rex's poop," I pursed my lips, noticing the huge smelly brown spot on his pectoral plaque.

Like a good soldier, he emitted only an annoyed grunt, although his frown obviously gave away his disgust.

I picked up my duffle bag and walked through the large French windows that connected the garden to the main living room; there was no one but me and Gavin, but that was normal. Most likely my father was holed up in his upstairs study, and Gregory, the butler, was overseeing the preparation of the lunch in the kitchen.

"The bedrooms are on the first floor. You can choose the one you prefer," I told Gavin. "They all have a private bathroom, and you'll also find clothes of your size suitable for this world."

Stifling a chuckle in front of his shocked look, I hastened to explain: “It was my mother's idea. When you have to run a pack, having a magical house that provides you with clothes lowers maintenance costs by a lot”.

"Sounds logical," was his laconic reply, but it didn't surprise me. When he was on duty he was always stiff, always dutiful, of few words: a real Fae guard to the core.

And just like a guard, he was extremely quick in choosing his room - the one right next to mine, in order to best perform his task. Protect the Crown Princess until death.

I let him settle in and empty his suitcases - they contained, judging by the rattle I heard, basically only weapons - and headed for the door at the end of the second-floor corridor, throwing it open and walking through it with a big smile.

"Hi, Dad".

As always, the King of Wolves wore a mask of cold indifference. Even when he looked up at me, not a smile or a spark lit up that austere face of his.

"It's ten thirty-two," was his greeting. "I asked you to show up at ten thirty."

I rolled my eyes and settled into the chair in front of the glass desk. “The keeper of the Portal Hall is old. It took him a while to open the door”.

"I didn't teach you to blame others for your shortcomings, Caroline."

I rolled my eyes. There was no way to win a conversation with him - I knew that well. He always found a way to win, to have the last word.

"Who do I have to kill?" I asked, skipping the pleasantries and looking him straight into his cold, pale blue eyes.

He blinked once, and then went back to signing a document.

"I didn't call you just for that," he said. "Although, of course, I will need your services."

No attempts to pretend it was his daughter who he'd called, and not his assassin. Good.

"Just spit it out," I retorted, bored. "So I can do what I have to do and both of us won't have to spend any more time with people we despise."

Three minutes passed before he gave me an answer, three minutes in which he continued to examine and file documents.

Deadly boring.

"Robert Glenn," he finally said. His voice was so flat, so void, that it almost seemed he was talking about a document, not a person whose life he was asking me to take. “Alpha of the Green Lake pack. I want him gone within three days from today”.

“Well, if that ain't a very short time”. Three days for a murder meant that I wouldn't even have time to stay there for the night: I would have to leave as soon as our meeting was over.

“That's why I'm entrusting it to you and not to another member of the Elite. I want it to look like he died of natural causes. Nothing must lead back to you, or worse, to me”.

"All clear. If it's not a problem, I'll leave immediately”.

He nodded. "That guy who came in with you," he inquired. "Who is he?"

I shrugged. “Sir Gavin, my personal guard in the Fae realm. Grandpa wanted him to follow me here… he was worried about my safety, you know”.

A little - and wicked - dig that I just couldn't keep to myself. Of course, it didn't work - it never did, not with him. But I certainly didn't regret it.

"So he'll come with me to Green Lake," I went on. Not a request - just information. "By the way, what was the other reason you summoned me?"

This time, he didn't even look up from his papers.

“We'll talk about it when you come back. I need you to be completely focused on your task”.

Interesting, I thought. And suspect.

I desperately wanted to question him until he told me what he had to say, but I knew it would be useless. When Malcolm decided something, you couldn't make him change his mind - and if he decided not to say a thing, he wouldn't say it even under torture.

So, I just put on my best sarcastic smile. "It was nice to see you again, dad."

I went out, closing the door behind me, without waiting for an answer that I knew wouldn't come.

Half an hour later, as we waited for our flight, Gavin was literally devouring the first McDonald's of his life.

"I don't understand," he said between mouthfuls. "I can literally sense that there is nothing healthy about this food, but ... I can't stop eating it."

"It's the sugars and the sauces," I giggled, munching on a ketchup-covered fry. "You'll get used to it."

"I don't know if I want to get used to it," he grumbled. “This isn't healthy. It doesn't feed the body properly”.

"No, but when you're traveling in the human world, it's much easier to stop at the closest McDrive than to hunt, butcher, and cook an animal."

It was strange, I observed, to see him eat and make comments about human food. Well, it was strange to see Gavin relating to the human world in general - everything was strange to him, foreign. The turnstiles, the screens, the cars, and even the garbage cans - whenever he found something new his face would light up in marvel and confusion. I couldn't wait to see how he would react to the airplane - I knew it would be priceless.

"So," he asked. "We get on the big metal bird, get off of it, kill this guy, and go back?"

"Exactly. With a few more steps in between, of course, ” I nodded. “We'll land in Scotland in about an hour and a half, so around… three thirty in the afternoon. We settle into the hotel and then do our research. And work out a plan to kill him”.

Gavin nodded. I knew I wouldn't get any reproach or disgusted look, not from him: he'd been my guard for over five years, he knew what I was doing on behalf of my father.

I killed too, he'd said, when I'd told him what I was forced to do. I'm a royal guard, it's the path I've chosen. So don't think I'll ever see you as a monster, Care. We are the ones who kill the monsters.

Now, I saw in his eyes the same look he'd given me five years before, a look of pure understanding and acceptance. I wanted to tell him something, to make him understand how much his support meant to me, how much his words had helped me through some rough times when suddenly, I caught a scent.

A familiar one, that reminded me of a pair of stormy, gray eyes.

It can't be, I thought, but it was enough for me to look over my burger to realize that it wasn't that impossible, after all.

A hundred feet away from me there was the man who'd saved me at the tavern.