The Princess And The Alpha *Excerpt Only*

Meet And Greet

I thought that eating lunch would be the laid back part of my day. It was the beginning, everyone was most likely tired or nervous, but it didn't make anything slow down. I noticed right away that two men nearly killed each other diving for the chair on my right while one man dashed recklessly to the chair on my left. I nearly snorted when I saw that the alpha on my right was the same man who refused to bow to me. I wondered briefly if he would fight for that spot as aggressively if he knew that he was already out of the running. I could not present the werewolf community with a man who thought he was too good for the rules.

However, I did take my time assessing the other men despite the fact that I knew I had a mate not too far away. Yes, I had been quite awful to Ryan and I hardly considered my actions fair, but I knew I could not be a luna. I was a princess, soon to be queen and the natural order of the werewolf world was not to be disturbed. But since I was unwilling to be his luna there was a chance he would be unwilling to be my king. I wasn't sure what would happen if he refused to be a king, but maybe I could share my power with another alpha, someone who wanted the job, and Ryan could still be my mate, still live with me and love me.

"You aren't listening to me." snapped the man on my right.

His pale blue eyes were furious as I assessed him silently, paying attention to him for the first time since he sat down. He fit the alpha stereotype I had in my head perfectly. He had massive shoulders that almost seemed too big for his body. His pale blonde- almost white- hair was cut incredibly close to his head and I briefly wondered if there was any brain cells left in that massive skull of his.

Deciding that I had had enough of his pigheadedness I turned to the man on my left and shot him the biggest, most genuine smile I could muster.

"How would you like to come for a walk with me?" I suggested, already standing up.

The young man nearly choked on his finger sandwich as he leapt to his feet and I pretended not to notice. I just held out my arm, waited for him to loop his through it, then strode purposefully towards the double doors, nearly dragging the poor fellow behind me.

I took him to the gardens and when I noticed the poor guy could barely control his arms from shaking with nervousness I asked him gentle questions. I wanted to know about his pack, what they were like and how things were going for them. Even if I didn't select him I still needed to be aware of how other werewolves were living. Ryan had shown me first hand how out of touch I was, and if I wanted to be a fair and just queen I needed to know who lived in poverty, who had great success, and who needed protection.

And once the gentleman answered those questions I moved on to more personal interrogations. I wanted to know how he was raised, what his parents were like, and how he found himself to be without a mate. He answered everything well and eventually relaxed. I found that there were no red flags with him, he didn't reject his mate because she was too weak nor did he have a father who was notoriously awful. He was just an average alpha from Slovakia. But just because there were no red flags didn't mean there were any green lights.

I made a mental note to dance with him after dinner, but I hardly thought he would make it into my top ten. He was gentle enough, just a little boring and average. Plus, he also wasn't very good at commanding anyone's attention. I sensed that he would be too much of a push over to be a good leader.

We eventually made our way back to the dining room and I picked someone else to accompany me for another walk elsewhere. This cycle repeated until the waiting alphas could not stick more food in their stomachs and my feet felt like they were swelling out of the strappy heels attached to them. I knew the plan was that I go for walks with each alpha before supper, get to know them a little, but I couldn't bear another boring stroll around the gardens or grounds so I dismissed the alphas, allowing them to do as they pleased until dinner.

I itched to shift into my wolf when I was finally outside by myself, but I knew I couldn't. I didn't want to have a new dress shoved on me and have to sit through hours of fixing my hair and makeup. So I settled for taking off those painful heels and walking through the stables bare foot. It probably looked a lot more ridiculous than it felt, but I hardly cared, I needed some quiet time and a little bit of comfort.

True, the day had gone better than planned and many of the alphas were much kinder and sweeter than I had assumed, but that hardly did anything to soothe my mind. I was constantly wondering if the man beside me was lying about what had happened to their mate so that I wouldn't pass judgement. I wondered if these alphas really wanted a second chance to be happy with someone or if they just wanted the crown. I worried that I would come to like someone who was only putting on a façade and as soon as I named him king he would twist into this awful person who loved power more than their subjects.

I jammed my eyes shut, trying to chase the thoughts out of my head and I walked down the stable aisle until Poison's large black head poked out over his stall door.

"Hello there handsome." I cooed.

I reached out to touch his cheeks just as someone spoke up.

"Well, princess, I never thought you would be the type to dish out compliments so soon."

I yanked my hand away from Poison and gasped in surprise as I took a couple steps back from the suddenly appearing stranger.

The man smiled, but it wasn't a fake grin that I had received from all of the other alphas today. It wasn't exactly a kind smile, almost like he didn't want to be here with me, but there was humor in it.

"Who are you?" I demanded. I grabbed one of my high heeled shoes and held it out as some kind of weapon, even though one shout from me would bring twenty guards running.

The man laughed slightly, his eyes never leaving mine. "I'm Everett, I'm an American alpha." He explained, "Please don't stab me with your shoe, I don't think that's how royals are to treat their guests."

I gave out a little huff of defeat and relief, but I couldn't help but smirk back a fraction, "Actually, my family is very big in self- defense all of the sudden. I think they would see it as a great success if I happened to kill a big American alpha with nothing other than a nice heel."

Everett chuckled again, "Well, in that case, I will beg you not to kill me. I hadn't realized that coming to see the royal horses would get me killed. I just needed to get away from some of those other werewolves."

Poison let out a snort of impatience and kicked the stall door, annoyed that he wasn't getting affection. I used his distraction as a brief opportunity to study the man in front of me. He was shorter than the average alpha, under six feet but still taller than me. Still, he had a lot on his frame in terms of muscle but it wasn't his body that I had a bit of an attraction to, it was his wild green eyes.

His eyes reminded me so much of Ryan that I had to quickly turn away from him to hide the guilt that flashed across my face. Thankfully, Poison was more than happy to hold my attention as he lipped at my hair and continued to stamp around, ready to go for a ride or to be let out in the pasture.

"Yeah," I finally whispered, "I get what you mean about having to get away. A lot of those men really have no business trying to be a king."