The Alpha King's Wrath

23 Always Something...

"So not only do we have a shadow man lurking about, that no one can find a trace of, but there's a dark witch too?!" I gasp at the increasing severity of our situation.

"Calm down baby. You're safe here, we just need to be vigilant," Chris tries to reason with me. "And before you ask, yes everyone is aware and the Guardians have tripled their guard on Ethan."

"Why is there always something," I groan and squeeze my eyes tightly shut.

I can't even manage a simple shopping outing.

Chris hugs me tighter and kisses the top of my head. I can feel his apprehension through the bond, he's no more happy about this than I am. In his loving embrace and with a full stomach, sleep eventually takes me once more.

-----

The next morning, I wake up alone. As the sleepy haze recedes, I remember Chris slipping out and telling me to rest more and that he'll see me at lunch. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I blink my surroundings into focus and notice a cart sitting not far from the bed with a note.

Morning Beautiful, I came to check on you but you were sleeping peacefully. Eat up and take it easy. Jude will be by to grab you for lunch.

'Now that's love, letting us sleep,' Ember snickers.

I lift the cover and see a platter covered in fruit, bacon, and blueberry waffles. I grab it, head over to the sofa, and pick up my phone, checking the texts with a big smile on my face. Just a couple quick ones from Jason and Trish, checking in to see how the project is coming, and how I like it here. After fabricating a colourful response, I finish breakfast and link Chris.

'Thanks for breakfast.'

'You're very welcome, though I have to admit I was tempted to crawl back into bed with you,' he muses.

'You should have,' I tease. 'After the last morning wake up reward, you set the bar high.'

'God, you test me, little one,' he growls. 'Unfortunately duty called.'

'Find anything?' I ask, knowing they're still trying to dig to the bottom of what happened.

'Nothing new. You're right. They were human, the rogue clothing hid their scent,' he admits.

'But?' I prompt, feeling his hesitation.

'Something doesn't feel right...,' he sighs. 'Aiden and Barron are satisfied to call it chaos, but they haven't had a single incident since the last royal family was assassinated. We're here for just over a week and someone magically shows up and makes a pass at you. Why?'

'Same as always, to get at you?' I offer. In this world, mates are viewed as a weakness. With Ember living deeper within me then other wolves, she's not easily detected, leaving me appearing weak. The Guardians worked on training me before we ever found out I was a wolf and I was a good archer before I met any of them, so I'm far from defenseless.

'That doesn't answer why though... If someone wanted to take out the throne, they should have done it before we came... The pack was less than half the size it is now and there were just old royal rank wolves. Now there's three Royals, the entire Guardian force, and young, new rank wolves prime out of war. We're missing something...' he trials off, the concern clear in his voice.

'I hate it when you make sense like that,' I grumble.

'I don't want you to worry baby,' he stresses. 'I promised no more secrets. I want you to be aware and vigilant, but until we know more there really isn't anything we can do.'