Alpha’s Second Choice

Moon goddess? Jo knew who she was. Moon goddess was the creator of the werewolves. She was the one responsible for creating mate bonds in the werewolf world.

Jo observed the little princess before her eyes, she knew Evelyn was very young and innocent. It was actually quite normal for young children to have imaginary friends and have such vision. The confused siren tried not to think too much about it.

Her thoughts wondered off to the wordings in the letter. Trapped in marriage. Vulnerability. Lonely Alpha King. It was haunting her nonetheless to say. How could a young girl envision such a sad and mature themed poem?

Evelyn made Jo keep the letter and was already gone.

Jo could see a hint of worry in the princess’s eyes as if she could not stay for too long which was odd given that Evelyn liked spending time with her. Or so she assumed.

Jo tried to look outside but the blinds were closed. She knew staying in bed and being sad over her mate was not going to really change anything. She knew this better than anyone.

She got up slowly stretching her sore body. One would think resting in bed for several days would be relaxing but it had quite the opposite effect.

Her body felt stiff and she really needed to clean herself up.

As Jo hopped into the shower, the cold water hit her skin and she felt herself relax. She had her gut instincts telling her Evelyn’s letter contained some truth. But she was not sure if it was the mate bond letting her to falsely latch on to the hope for a chance to be with her mate.

She could not tell. But first things first, she needed to talk to Dante.

*

Veronica entered the queen’s private chamber; the chamber had scented candles and aromatic flowers decorating the expensive furnishing of the royal room.

‘My queen’, Veronica bowed down before the queen who was sitting in front of the dressing mirror and combing her luscious dark brown hair.

Von felt a pinch of jealously. Long hair represented beauty and elegance in the werewolf world. After her husband died in a rogue attack, she had to cut her hair short to honour his dead soul and the traditions.

But now that it had been three years already, she had moved way past her dead mate. She wanted to find love again, her bed was too lonely and cold at night. And she wished she could feel the warmth of having somebody again. Except she could not re-marry for one reason…

‘Rise Von. Have you got any good news for me?’, Olivia replied, not turning back but looking at Veronica from the mirror’s reflection.

‘My queen, I believe I do. Our secret messengers have reported back from the Dark Slayer Pack. The omega, Jo only joined the pack five years ago and she had reportedly no pack before that. As for Jo’s group, the two fairies were released from the hunting ground sla. very on King Dante’s order and the other omega was an accused murderer of the pack’.

Olivia’s face expression remained the same, blank and emotionless. Veronica was the only person in the royal kingdom who knew the queen’s true face. At first, the queen came across as strikingly beautiful, caring and a loving queen. Everyone in the kingdom hailed their queen with respect and loyalty. But Olivia had done horrible things to get to where she was. Veronica knew that because she had a hand in this too, although not willingly. By the time the bad deed was done, realization and guilt hit hard for her and only then did she realise, how cunning and a smooth manipulator Olivia was. She had never met someone double faced like that before. The queen was just too good at hiding and pretending, and making other people do the dirty work for her with or without them realising.

‘Jo had no other packs before Dark Slayer, you say’, the queen raised her eyebrows.

‘Yes, my queen. Her existence before entering the Dark Slayer pack is very vague. We do not have any concrete reports on that’.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

‘Interesting’, the queen responded finally turning her back and facing Veronica. ‘And her friend Lucy is an accused murderer. She definitely has an odd companionship’.

Veronica kept her head down, not knowing how to respond back. ‘Oh, and my queen, there were rumours in that pack about Alpha Jayden claiming the accused omega, Lucy as his mate. Apparently ever since the rumours started spreading, Lucy moved into Jo’s shared room. And they became really close’.

‘Hmmm’, Olivia hummed slowly. ‘Excellent work done Von. Tell the secret workers to continue spying there’.

‘As you command, my queen’.

*

Jo observed herself in the mirror. She had washed her unruly red hair and felt a bit more presentable now. Her hair had started drying and so she started braiding them slowly with three partitions. After the braid was done, her hair length became shorter, but it made it look like she put some effort in looking pleasant to other people’s eyes, not that she cared anyway.

‘Right’, she mumbled to herself. She needed to talk to Dante and clear things between them. It had now been a couple of weeks since she had arrived here and there was still no news of the royal healers. Jo should have used this time to do something productive instead of crying and rolling around in her bed with the blankets like a tortilla wrap.

Yes, she should have used this time to come up with a fake excuse for the mate bond rejection. She did not know if she could reveal her true identity to Dante while saying the rejection words. And unless she reveals it, the mate bond won’t break. She was in a really sticky situation. But there had to be a way out. Right?

*

‘I knew something was starting to smell fishy, turns out Jo finally decided to leave her den’, Daya sarcastically mocked the siren who walked into the girls basking under the sun.

Jo rolled her eyes at the 1000th fish joke she had heard from her friends.

‘What have you girls been upto?’, Jo asked, taking a seat next to Mina who had her eyes closed and was clearly enjoying the sun.

‘Just enjoying the amazing palace life. I could get used to this’, Daya replied whilst Mina nodded in approval.

‘Jo, you missed out on all the amazing gossips! But the most shocking one is this. This little dumb blonde found her mate and was hiding it from us’, the pink haired fairy angrily burst out, pulling on Lucy’s ear like she was a third grade teacher.

‘I have said I am sorry a million times’, Lucy tried freeing herself from Daya’s grip.

‘You are only sorry cause you got caught. Imagine if I wasn’t thirsty that night and did not go to the kitchen. I would not have seen you two lovers near the mansion entrance and we would have never known about it!’.

Jo looked amazed at the revelation. ‘Lucy, I am happy for you! Who is it? One of the royal warriors?’.

‘Um, he is actually an Alpha-‘

‘Its Alpha Caleb, that silver haired one’, Daya excitedly finished for Lucy.

Jo had an awkward expression on, ‘ I thought he was a royal general?’.

‘Actually, he is the royal commander for this kingdom but he also has his own pack; the Ice warrior pack’, there was a hint of pride in Lucy’s voice.

Did she already like this Alpha? Jo hoped not.

‘Did he try to corner and reject you. I am so sorry Lu-‘, the clueless siren began.

‘Nah-ah. What rejection? They were having a hot steamy hug. Lucy was totally throwing herself on her hot mate’, the pink haired fairy chirped in again.

‘Daya!’, Lucy yelled her name with pink blush forming on her cheeks. ‘I told you my emotions were high that night because it was my first shapeshift’.

Jo realised how much she had actually missed out. It was true, time never waited for anyone. The world would always keep moving forward, stopping for no one.

‘He actually asked me if I could give him a chance. I wanted to reject him, Jo. Mates make you weak, I learnt that from you. I want to become strong like you’, the air in the room suddenly turned stale.

‘Lucy, NO’, Jo said sternly, sitting slightly upright in the chair and folding her arms. ‘YOU and ME, we are different. If Caleb treats you right and is still unmated, you should give it a go. Please do not compare yourself ever to me. Unless our circumstances are the same from A-Z, you don’t have to do what I am doing’.

The sudden harsh tone of the siren startled Lucy a little, making her eyes well up, ‘I am sorry Jo. I would never compare myself to you. You are strong and amazing. And I look up to you-‘.

Within a heartbeat, Jo hugged Lucy making her stop instantly mid-sentence.

‘I am not someone worthy to look up to Lucy. If Caleb treats you right, you should consider him. Please don’t reject him only because of our situation with Alpha Jayden. That ass. hole is thousands of miles away. We are under full protection here’.

Lucy only nodded in Jo’s arms, she felt a little liberated from the proposition they had made initially. Their friendship had grown way beyond any proposition. Lucy would give her life up for her dear friends now, they were her everything. But hearing Jo said she was free to make her own choices put her uneasy heart to calm. She really needed to hear that….

Jo shed some tear herself as she hugged her friend tightly. But she felt a gush of a weird omnious scent in the air. The scent screamed of chaos, death and hell. Horrible memories of her past returned as she started shivering out of fear. This distinctive scent only belonged to one man.

Belial, the right hand of the demon king and commander of hell.