Alpha King's Healer

3

I turn around to face King Thaddeus. My body was in complete shock, unable to move with fear.

"Cree?" I repeat, trying to see if I heard him wrong.

"The man you love. The man you are waiting to declare you as his mate since you are not a wolf and cannot feel the mate bond pull. The man that you are desperately hoping is keeping his bond from you until you are ready," he restated calmly.

"I am not in love with Cree, I know my likelihood of having a mate is slim to none," I lie through my teeth, trying to get him off the trail of harming someone I care deeply about.

"I have seen the way you look at him. So, Miss Kingsley." The King starts walking towards me, each of his strides long and powerful. "If you don't stay and help me, neither of us will ever have our mate."

"Killing Cree would cause an uprising with Alpha Dion. He is the only heir to pack Arvendon. You wouldn't dare start another war, this time within your own kingdom." I argue, shuffling on my feet slightly, but not enough for the King to notice my uneasiness.

"I am the King of Lodestar. Your pack and the others within my domain are only alive because I allow it," King Thaddeus pointed out with clear amusement on his face. He was testing and daring what I would say next.

I thought about it hard, weighing in what each word and outcome would mean. There was no way out of this. I could tell King Thaddeus was a man of his word. He would kill Cree, no matter the cost.

"If I help you, you won't hurt Cree?"

"Won't harm a hair on his head." The King's body finally meets mine at the door.

Overpowering and threatening compared to my tiny figure, he slowly moves a loose strand of my blonde hair behind my ear and off my neck. He bends down slightly, his lips just barley hovering above my ear to whisper to me, despite the fact we are the only people in the room.

"All you have to do is stay here and cure me." His lips brush my ear causing me to hold my breath. "After I am cured, you will be set free to be with the man you love." He leans away to stand tall again.

With my eyes locked upon his dark shoes, I ask, "What if I never figure out how to heal you?"

"Then you will be stuck here trying to figure it out until you die." He opens the door, once again motioning for me to walk through first.

Right as I put a foot past the frame, he grabs my upper arm to stop me.

"Don't tell anyone about this. No one can know of my curse," he warns.

"I can't just stay here with no explanation. What am I supposed to tell my alpha?" I felt my own brows furrow at him.

"There is no price Alpha Dion will wager." The King starts thinking hard, the gears grinding noticeably as his lips purse tightly together. I watch, mortified as his lips tug into a slight smirk. "Tell them we are mates."

"First that would require-"

"Being spoken for. I know. So I, Thaddeus of House Makai and King of Lodestar, have spoken for you, Miss Aurelia Kingsley of pack Arvendon."

✧ ✧ ✧

Will I be able to cure him? If I can't cure him, will he kill me? Worst of all, will he kill Cree? If he kills Cree, would another war entice? If I do cure him, what will the future hold? So many thoughts ran through my head as I entered the ball room that everyone continued to celebrate in.

I was drowning, with no way to get my head above the never-ending flow of chaos within my mind. I felt out of my body, a foreigner, as I walked through the crowds. A couple of kids run past my legs. A little boy chasing a little girl. Their young giggles echoed like a sweet melody of innocence.