DILIGITIS // King Alpha

Chapter 18

' bliss '

The next three weeks were pure bliss. We did not fight or argue, there were no wars to plan together and he did not push me to take things any faster than I wanted to take them. I still slept in my separate bedroom, though I still could not seem to fall asleep on the bed. I instead slept next to it on the floor, when I woke up in the morning I always found myself covered in a thick blanket and with a pillow tucked underneath my head. Catalina was always the person responsible for that.

I told her absolutely everything, and in return she started to share more information about herself with me too. Like many human servants, she did not know if her family was still alive and where they were. She did not trust any of the werewolves, and had kept to herself mostly ever since she started working for King Aris. 

Aris made sure to build up my company slowly. One day a young werewolf named Heather showed up at my door, she had been assigned to be my handmaid. Aris later explained to me that a queen has handmaidens to keep her company and help her with her tasks. Catalina, being human and not werewolf, was not allowed the rank of handmaiden. I had to call her my servant.

Another girl joined us not a day later. Her name was Mia, and she was as loud as she was fierce. I came to respect that pretty quickly though, it was much better than all the diplomatic answers everyone else gave me.

Not that I gave them much work. Most of all they just kept me company and rushed to me when I tried to do the slightest task myself. I liked all of them, but Catalina was the one I fully trusted when I needed to talk to someone. 

Aris and I were outside, something I had not been in a while. I tried to go out multiple times, but there were always big, werewolf, guards in my way. Today however I had the King at my side, so they had to step away.

"When I just came to power, I let witches enchant the border of my personal lands." He told me, pointing to the tree line not far from us. "Whenever someone crosses it, I can feel it. If it is someone with malicious intentions, my guards can too."

"Are there many?" I asked. "Werewolves with malicious intent, I mean." 

The sun was beaming down on us as we walked along the tall grass. It reached all the way to my hips. I let my hands brush over it as he spoke. "It is in a werewolves nature to want to rise to the top." He said, after a short silence. "However, I keep my Alpha's happy and rich, and my enemies scared."

"Enemies like King Byron." I said, referring to the war in which we met. Aris had told me that he had killed Byron on the battlefield. "Are there more kings?"

"I now rule the entire north." He said, glancing around the fields. "There is a king in the south, and a few more oversees. I am sure that they wish me dead, especially after killing Byron." When he noticed my confused look he continued. "I did not inherit the throne, Victoria. I took it. All the other kings, they're all related. Some more distant than others."

"You killed a family member." I summed up.

"Hardly." He said, pulling some of the grass out. "I think he was the fourth cousin, twice removed of the King in Asia." We stopped walking, in the distance I could see his guards stop following us as well. "They don't like that I took the throne, that I am worthy of it not by the blood in my veins but the blood I spilled, and that my territory has now enhanced. I am a threat to their empires. However," he smiled down at me. "They have no claim to start a war upon. It would cause turbulence amongst their alphas and that is something they just can't afford."

"Good." I smiled back at him. "I could do without war."