The Alpha King's Hunt

Chapter 5

Valarie

We arrived just before sunset, to torches blazing in a courtyard filled with high-end cars, both antique and modern.

The Autumn Pack's Lexus held its own with delicate gold leaf details and tinted windows that I tried not to look out of in awe.

Instead I sat up perfectly straight, staring at Sophia as the princess composed herself.

We were the second to last car to arrive, and it didn't take long for the twelfth and final car to trundle into the yard. At this a messenger ran quickly up the steps of the palace and slipped through the door.

Inside the Lexus Sophia and I couldn't hear what was being announced. But the driver opened the door and stepped back, making way for me to step out first. I always hated having to be the first one out.

I wore a simple mauve dress, cut square at the neck, showing off my collarbones. Head held low to show respect, I half-curtsied as Sophia stepped out of the car and was announced to the waiting royalty and the large crowds of people.

I had never been around so many other werewolves.

The Autumn Pack was small, only a few hundred people, and everyone knew each other by first and last name. I had known every single person we went to school and graduated with. But this – I glanced up and couldn't see an end to the crowd where they wound out to the gate and beyond.

The wolf in me recognized the presence of countless alphas and betas, and it wanted to submit.

But I needed to focus on my own alpha – my princess, and a contender for the Alpha Queen, who needed my support.

Despite her poise, I knew that Sophia was nervous. It was in the stiffness in how the princess held her chin and the slight clutch of her fingers on the deep green gown she wore.

She swept forward across the cobblestones with me close on her heels, and curtsied deep before Queen Raquel and King Gabriel.

Still mirroring Sophia's curtsy as the royal family greeted them with quiet murmurs, I glanced up and saw King Gabriel for the first time.

He literally took my breath away. Everything in me shuddered to a stop.

Damn it, I thought, looking down again as I rose. The last thing I needed was to be caught off guard with so many eyes on me and the princess.

But Gabriel stood only a few feet away and he emanated the ultimate Alpha presence.

He seemed cold, stoic, his skin beautifully pale and hair the color of golden hayfields. He towered above his mother and almost every other person in the courtyard with his feet braced shoulder-width apart and his hands clasped behind his back.

The wolf in me whimpered and tried to coax me down to the ground again, to simper at his feet. But I fought it and stood tight and tall next to Sophia as we all waited for the final princess – from the Hickory Pack – to be introduced.

Gabriel's eyes swept across the twelve princesses and their retinues once more before he said, in a low voice, "I hope you will all be comfortable here."

He took a step forward and turned, striding down the length of them with long, deliberate steps.

"We have provided a set of apartments for each of you and your attendants during your stay. If you should need anything at all please ask any of my servants, whom you should find placed around the palace at your beck and call."

I couldn't help trembling at the sound of his voice and tried to keep my breathing even. I glanced at Sophia, trying to see if she was having the same reaction to the King. But maybe it had to do with the hierarchical standing – Sophia seemed perfectly at ease, though a little nervous at being watched by so many.