The Hunted

Meetings

                                                                          Two Days Before The Hunt

                                                                                          The King

I am stressed.

The list of unmated had come in a week ago and only females were on it. The female alphas, betas, and gammas, were furious that they couldn't attend "The Kings Hunt", as they called it. Telling me I have to do something about it or else they will be on my doorstep. I couldn't care less if they had a problem with me. I did however have a problem with a certain bundle of 'what ifs' that had been on my mind.

What if I find her? What if I don't? What if she hates my castle? What if she hates me? Wha-. I stopped my train of thought once I could feel the presence of my wolf suddenly. It had been a while since he came to the front of our minds. 

What if something good happens? he spoke.

The wolf in my mind had always looked on the brighter side of things and then got depressed when things didn't happen as he hoped. Ever since the king's people decided they'd rather live alone than stand by his side simply because what his father had done broke that young wolf's heart. After his mother and father died, he hoped his family would rest in his people. Only to be abandoned at the young age of 16 with an empty castle, a funeral to plan, and the sudden war most alphas declared on him. Joy became a thing of the past. 

It seems Steven King wrote the King's novel, writing the blood of the people he once loved into scary chapters. The cemetery stops having a sentimental meaning if the people who are dead to you come back to finish you off. 1408 was just a dark room that Daddy put him in when his son poked at him for not letting him eat. The monster in the dark wasn't the boogeyman; it was just a wolf that saw an opportunity. 

I let out a deep sigh before slumping down in my office chair and looking at the files before me. The names of healers, warriors, rooms, food and water, clothes, statistics on death, the likelihood of injuries, expectations some packs have, and requests from others. I felt like Santa because I needed to check everything multiple times for everything to be correct and perfect. Without any little helpers, other than my beta and gamma, the pack lands so far had been a shit show.

Tobias enters the room lacking the usual light that emits from him. Slumping down in the spot he chooses his designated chair to be in for the past 200-something years. He ran his thumb over his bottom lip before glancing over at me. Stress wasn't the only one eating at us. 

"Alpha Bree has come for her meeting," he started. " She has threatened war if we don't have at least one male in our unmated file."

I rolled up my shirt and perched my elbows on my desk. "If she thinks she can win a war between us then she can try. As for the male problem, it isn't our fault that those whose job it is to find the unmated have failed. She needs to see that we aren't ones to back down."

Just then Leon knocks on the door. I can smell he isn't alone, that she and her gamma are with her. 

I sigh. Let's get this over with.

"Come in." Leon opens the door immediately and steps inside along with the headaches to be.

"My king, Alpha Bree, and her gamma Davis have arrived for their meeting," Leon said gently.

"Thank you, Leon. Please sit, Alpha." Bree quickly plopped herself down on the loveseat furthest away. 

"Your Majesty, thank you for seeing us on such short notice with the hunt preparation. As you know, there is no male unmated taking place in the hunt. As one of many wolves that need a mate, I need to bring it up that this is unacceptable!"I could tell that Alpha Bree had slowly been getting angrier as she spoke. I understand that this is an upsetting situation, and while I do respect her for taking over her father's pack when her brother decided that he would rather be a child molester than someone respectable when she was just 20 years old, her tone wasn't something id put up with much longer. Simply put, she was on thin ice.

"I understand that the situation is upsetting. What do you expect me to do about it? The unmated is coming tomorrow and will stay the night before the hunt begins. Yes, there is the last load of unmated that aren't logged, but I'm notified of the early morning. Because I respect you, I ask from one alpha to another, what do you think should happen?"

Alpha Bree fidgeted in her chair and the gamma whispered for her to calm down. "This is why I threatened war with you. You fail at everything you do."

"Watch it." Interveined Tobias while Leon emitted a deep growl.

"NO! From everything I've heard, I'm surprised that you have stayed sane throughout all of these years. You've failed at keeping your mother alive, you murdered your father, you showed belly to the alphas that demanded to leave, and you've been nothing but a pushover since your father kept you in this pathetic excuse of a kingdom. Your path-" I jump over my desk and grab her by her throat in the blink of an eye. My wolf rages inside my head as he tells me to coat her gamma in blood.

I lift her off the ground with ease and pull her to where her ear is near my mouth. "Don't you think that it is strange that the king who was just a little boy was able to kill the strongest alpha known in history? I wonder how that could've happened hmm?" I dropped her and turned back to my desk. I heard her cough up a lung and sputter on her spit and I decided this is where this meeting was ending.

"If you decide to wage a war on me, I hope you have more than 100,000 men and women you're able to dispose of," I sat down in my chair and leaned back. "It took that much to make me even take one knee."

"My king has ended the meeting. I'd say thank you for attending, but I'd only say that for when you leave." Leon spoke coldly.

The gamma hurriedly spoke a thank you for seeing us before ushering his alpha out of the room.