Belonging To The Alpha King

Chapter Nine

Her bottom lip wobbled as she tried to smile. Tears lined her eyelids. Her once lifeless eyes had finally turned happy, but now they are sad. Rosà didn't known 'Bruno' for a long time but she believed four weeks was enough for them to form a sort of bond.

Now she didn't want to let him go. Four whole weeks had passed and the beast's wounds had finally closed up, and now he had to leave. Seeing her struggle with her tears made him want to stay a little longer, but duty called.

He'd wasted too much time already, his people needed him now more than ever. He felt guilt rise up as her lip wobbled again, he wanted to shift into his human form and explain to her why he couldn't stay while reassuring her that everything would be ok , but he couldn't do that, he couldn't risk a human finding out his true nature. But he feared more than that, her terrified expression if he had reviled himself to her.

He took advantage of her kneeling position to rid her pale face of the tears that rolled down her sunken cheeks.

He gave a sad wine as she sniffled and brushed her frail hand through his fur once more. As he turned to leave, he had but one thought 'this won't be the last of me you'll see. I shall return for you soon.'

Shifting into his human form as soon as he was out of her line of sight, he trudged through the forest the way he thought he came through, not as excited as he first was when he rushed through, but not quite as he did after his encounter which left him in tatters.

As he started to loose hope and his shoulders started to droop, he smelt familiar scents. However, all sorts of different emotions were mixed into those scents, hopelessness, worry, fear, he also caught a whiff of blood.

Worry seeped into his very bones and he rushed to the direction the scents were strongest. He came upon a sight he did not know how to describe, and emotions he would never mention later on flooded him.

There they were, almost half of his pack, delta and all. Each covered in blood that either belonged to themselves or those sprawled at there paws , panting and looking around wildly. Though he noted that not all the enemies where human hunters.

As he breathed a sigh and fell to his knees, no actual thought or emotion flooded him. A light brown hulk of a wolf turn as its sensitive ears picked up the sound. Its pale blue eyes pulped and its large body trembled then shifted into that of a humans'.

"Your Majesty!" The now shifted man hollered with so much emotion, 'Ash' didn't know which he was feeling. At his outburst, all the other beasts shifted and cried the same thing, rushing toward him ain a hurry, most stumbling and tripping over their own feet.

He gave an excited whine and dashed forward to meet his relieved subjects.

"As our KING! You are not to be running around all willy nilly! You even managed to get yourself HURT!  You have a whole kingdom to run for goddess' sake!" 'Ash' knelt and took his scolding as if it were a brutal beating. He knew he deserved it and so did his retainers- he did run off and disappeared for weeks on end without contact after all, which is why no one spoke up about how he was being spoken to. Though this was a serious situation he was in, he still could not help but silently snicker at the fact that what he thought would happen when he would be found had all occurred in perfect syncing to the scene he draw out in his head.
After the heart felt 'welcome homes' from his pack, his oh so predictable retainers had gone on with their worried phrases (almost as if they were rehearsed lines on a scrit)

"Do you know how worried I was?!"

" Dou you have any idea what I went through cause of you?!"

"I was so worried!"

"YOU..." The nagg- scolding had found itself a new target, or targets, seeing as his retainers were now facing the wrath of the elders.

'Ash' drowned out the voices of the accusers and accused and thought back to Rosà.
He wondered if she was still weeping over his departure. His mind went on to fabricate a scenario where she made her way through the forest to seek him out, she was just that brave.

In reality, however, Rosà had tried to dry her tears, picked herself up off the ground and dragged her heavy body to her hut woth slumped shoulders. She let out heavy sigh now and again as she went about clearing the little belongings she had gifted to him and getting ready to go to work.

At work, Rosà was a scowling statue. Her regular customers either avoided her (only the ones she isn't so friendly with) or tried to cheer her up. All in all, her day was dreadfully boring and sad, all because her only true friend had to leave.

When she got home, her loneliness intensified, for her companion was not there to greet her as soon as she managed to shove open the creaky wooden platform she had as a door.
Rosà let out her nth sigh for the day as she slouched her way to a chest that held her  clothes.
She sauntered into her cramped wash area and changed from the slightly revealing waitress outfit she called a uniform. As she scowled at how difficult it was to get out of  the annoying article, she remembered how the wolf's  intelligeble eyes seemed to roam her form with a hint of lust. She tried to brush it off as his curiosity, but she had seen those looks at the pub way too often.
Glancing at the small mirror that hang over the wash basin, she caught her face dusted a light pink.