Royal Alpha (rewritten)

Chapter Two

A heavy sigh left my lips as we marched forward.

"You still haven't told me why you are so nervous, is it Dusk Forest?" Sonya was relentless. We had been chatting quietly about everything and nothing. Trivial subjects we were much too familiar with, so it came pretty easy to keep the conversation going. Up until now, we had not brought up more delicate matters to attention, like the frail details that this journey entailed for our relationship with the Brazen people. 

I realized my mind had started deviating when I felt the slight pinch on my arm.

"Son of a..." I mumbled as my fingers rubbed the spot, "sorry, sorry, there is so much going through my mind and I can't reel it all back in."

She placed her hand on my shoulder, like a couple of hours ago when we realized we were in Drifter ways. 

"Everything will fall in place accordingly, don't stress too much." She gave me a sharp look with her last words.

I sighed once more and nodded my head.

"You know what happens when a royal stresses. The stress of the head..."

"...is the stress of the body. I know."

Sonya was right, I couldn't let the stress grow enough to infiltrate the mental barrier that guarded the privacy in our minds. When a royal tensed, everything and everyone was able to feel the strain.

"It is Dusk Forest, I haven't been there since the Onyx Night. And it's not really stress I feel, it's this... expectancy. Still not sure if it's due to something good or not, though."

She nodded her head once and tensed slightly. She looked back over our shoulders and tilted her head. Probably someone pulling on her mind link. 

My feet kept dragging me on and on. We still had to cross a meadow after the hills ended, then into Dusk Forest. A light breeze ran through the group and caused goosebumps to form on my arms. I looked back at the people following us. My people. Our people. The had entrusted so much of their faith in us to lead them, I could only hope we were doing the right thing in traveling this far. It had been such a long time since a pack had to travel in its entirety, almost unheard of. There had been only two other cases known to us in history. Both times because of uncontrollable situations or the weakened state of one pack.

I ran a hand up and down my arm. We weren't weak, but our priests had felt a darker shadow moving over the world and Mother and Father had thought it better to take our people to the Brazen territory. We had not heard any news from Meander Kingdom and we had reason to believe they were somehow involved in our priests' angst. We had been peaceful neighbors for the last couple centuries, trade was beneficial for both packs as far as I could remember and we were a long way  from becoming enemies. 

But we had not heard from our messengers in 2 weeks. Better safe than sorry, we were not ones to expose the people of our pack to unnecessary risks. 

"Any word from Bleiz yet?" I whispered to Sonya as we descended into the meadow. She nodded her head and I stared at her, waiting for her to elaborate. 

"It is a small group of Drifters, maybe twenty. The ones who stayed behind should be able to handle them without an effort." My lips pursed in deep thought. We kept on walking.

The I froze for a moment as a thought raced through my mind.

"Sonya." She signaled for the rest of the pack to stop and got in front of me. We were halfway through the meadow. Right at the border of Dusk Forest, the start of Brazen territory.

"What is it?" 

"The men stayed and they are all warriors, some healers too?" I mumbled to her, hoping no one would be the wiser of what was going on until I could come up with a plan.

"Elyn, they will be fine, Bleiz is more than capable..." she hushed when there was a rustle of leaves and rocks in a bundle of bushes nearby. We still had not crossed over to Brazen territory.

"But no trackers?" She confirmed my thoughts with a slight shake of head.

I cursed under my breath and turned to my pack as Sonya guarded my back. It had been too easy, the track so evident, almost as if they were expecting us to find it. 

"Everybody, we need to stay silent. I fear that a couple drifters have been following all this time ever since we first detected them. We will separate in four groups. There will be at least 10 healers on each group. One of the royal keepers and Sonya will stay with me, the other one will remain with the group that has the most children. We stay on the same path, if we were to be attacked, you are to go in different directions through the forest. But remember, we strive for Brazen Valley, no matter what direction you take into the forest. Daughter of the Moon watch over you, we won't let them take us down."

Everyone nodded as I shielded my mind from all of them but Sonya.

"Still no word from Bleiz?"  her silence was confirmation enough. We watched everyone start to regroup as silently as they could. Even the younger ones knew not to make any noises.

"There should be more people with you, what if..." a small growl fell from my lips, enough to silence her.

"That won't happen, and drifters usually look for the leaders in a group. I won't endanger anyone else that could have better chances otherwise."

"You are offering yourself as bait then?" she hissed into my thoughts.

"Watch it." I glared at her until she cast her eyes away in submission.

"Sorry, I didn't mean is as a..." I placed my hand on her arm.

"I know."

"Elyn, I'm telling this as your bestfriend. What you are about to do is stupid. Your brother will have my and Raphert's heads if something were to happen to you. And that, without mentioning the obvious thing that will happen if, Daughter of the Moon forbid it, you DIE." The emphasis she placed on that very last word almost made me cringe.

"It won't come to that. And you are the Shadow of the Crown, you wouldn't let it get that far." She huffed.

"No pressure, sure." she mumbled so only I could hear. Leave it up to hear to make a sarcastic remark in a situation like this.

Our heads snapped once more in the same direction from which the noise had originated. Two shadowy figures emerged, making the more primitive instincts in me surface. Another growl, this time louder, came out of my throat, threatening the enemy into yielding. 

"I can't be sure it's just the two of them."  Sonya and Raphert readied themselves, muscles tensed, prepared to move. 

"Run." The order moved swiftly through everyone's minds and a quite impressively organized chaos followed. The younger children carried away by their mothers, the older ones holding on by the hems of the shirts. Everyone ran.

My shoulders tensed as I turned to the back of the group and walked through the masses of people, who kept moving at the same pace and managed to avoid a collision with each other. I kept walking as calmly as possible. They wouldn't turn back, they wouldn't be able to disobey my orders even if they wanted to.

I was Alpha, just like my brother was, just like our parents were. My voice carried all their power in that one order and I knew it was for the best of the pack. 

Sensing Sonya and Raphert walking slightly behind at either side of my figure, my hands moved to pull back the hood off my head. More figures emerged from the hills.

I looked back and ensured everyone headed to the forest. It was still Dusk Forest, but it was Brazen territory and it was safer to cross the border, drifters wouldn't dare follow them.

Once they were a safe distance I turned once more to face the shadowy figures. Holding my breath slightly, I waited for them to speak up. 

"Moonlight Princess." The hairs on my neck stood up at the sound of the familiar, yet most unwelcome voice.

"Hello, Klayden."