Directions
Killian
For the first time in my life, I was jealous. I found myself so fucking jealous of my own beta. The way and manner in which I had known they were secretly training together had been so calm before. We were fucking worlds apart. I could smell her all over him—three times now.
And so, I called him and asked him point-blank, “What are you doing with the human?”
With his hands behind his back, he said nothing. He just blinked, his legs spread shoulder-width apart.
“I don’t understand the question, Alpha.”
He had a tiny mark on his face—so tiny it was barely noticeable.
“Elara,” I said, calling her name. “What are you doing with her? Why do you smell like her?”
His eyes met mine. “She came to me with a question,” he said, “and I answered—as I have been since the past couple of days now.”
My frown deepened. “Give me a fucking straight answer, Lucas. I don’t have time for this nonsense.” I pointed to the list of petitions on my table, along with the growing pile of paperwork.
He shrugged. “It’s not my fault you can’t delegate properly, Alpha. But with regards to the human—she said she wanted to train, and she came to me. Being that I don’t always have to sign petitions myself and work on pack paperwork, I have more time to myself—and to her—such that I could help her. Is there a problem?”
His face was smug—so smug I wanted nothing more than to smack the smugness off it. I felt anger brewing in my belly, so strong and so deep.
He swallowed. His throat tightened slightly, and he looked away from me.
“It’s not my fault,” he said. “It’s what she wants. It’s not what I wanted. Besides, Alpha, with all due respect, I doubt you’ll be able to help her the way she needs to be helped.”
The only question resounding in my mind was—how could he say that? She was mine.
“She’s mine,” I said out loud. “It’s not up to you to determine how I will help her.”
“So, should I stop?”
I looked away. “I will assign someone else to the case.”
“Alpha,” he said, relaxing just a little bit, “you don’t have the time. As Beta, I’m directly in charge of training our forces. It wouldn’t do you any good to start looking for another person. Besides, the knowledge of her isn’t so rampant in the pack, so don’t you think it would be better to keep this within us—between us?”
I said nothing. Of course, he made perfect sense. And I, deep down, knew I was not being very realistic, even though I wanted my way.
“Choose a captain then,” I said, my voice louder. “Someone you can trust. You have other things to do, as do I. We cannot spend our days training the human.”
He winced slightly, as though I had struck him, but otherwise said nothing. He swallowed and simply stayed silent, waiting for anything else I might say.
“Dismissed.”
He gave a quick nod and stepped out of the office.
Just as he left, however, in came Selena’s father—the salt-and-pepper-haired elite whose smiles reeked with ill intent.
“What do I owe this honour?” I raised an eyebrow but didn’t stand.
He watched me for a brief moment. Old memories stirred within him. Years ago, when I had nothing to my name save the need to find support amongst the elite, I had gone to him.
“Help me,” I had said.
He had looked at me and smiled wryly.
“Usually, I don’t like to stake a claim on things that are defective.”
He chuckled. “No offense, Alpha, albeit the fact that you are young, you are also inexperienced.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes then. Being so powerless had riddled me with nightmares to some extent. My life had been threatened several times, but not quite as bad as the look he gave me.
I pressed my lips together and took his insult. I smiled. “But the only way I can get experience is by working on the job. You know this better than I do. You’re an elite. It’s your support I need. I know that I can be the Alpha this pack needs me to be.”
He had shaken his head. “I highly doubt that. You see, you’re weak because you have no mate, Killian. And having no mate—well, it shows that you’re prime.”
His eyes moved over my form. I was skinnier then, barely having come into power after my father’s death. But the council at the time hadn’t allowed me to sit as Alpha. Even though my blood was pure and my strength unmatched, politics—as they said—was stronger than any other form of government.
I hated it. I hated it so badly I wanted nothing more to do with it. But it was my reality.
When he entered the room, I stood to my feet. When he spoke, I was attentive—I was practically his lapdog for a couple of months until he agreed.
“My daughter fancies you,” he had said when he agreed. “You’d do well to give her an ear.”
I watched the man in front of me still and raised an eyebrow at him. “You can stand if you want to, you can sit—whatever you want to do. Just say what you want and get the fuck out of my office.”
He smiled but walked towards my desk and sat. “You have yet to make a decision. Will you take my daughter as your official mate and keep the human female as your pet?”
“No,” I said quickly. Didn’t even need to think about it—it was a pretty straightforward answer. In no way on this green planet would I choose to do such a foolish thing. “It’s against your daughter’s better judgment to ask for something so defectively stupid. Why would I want to have two? What good does it do for her?”
“It’s not about what’s good for her,” he said. “It’s about the fact that you stick with customs. Also, truly, it’s not she who suggested this—the council suggested it to you because we saw the madness. We saw it, and we still do. You’ve had two incidents since the council—two incidents of going wild.”
I flinched but didn’t look away. I kept my eyes on his. He knew more than anyone should understand the gravity of this.
He cocked his head to one side in question. “Understand? Of course, I do.”
His voice grew softer. “Which is why I made such a suggestion in the first place—that way, you can keep both of them and keep order. Imagine,” he said slowly, “you’ve already gone mad once. Who knows? Remember, the third time you’ll kill someone, and finally, we’ll say yes. The council, of course, allows you to mate with whomever it is you choose—and you pick the human. Against pack custom and rules. You are taking the pack by surprise. There’s enough instability. Eventually, your enemies will begin to clutch your smaller territories on the outside, ever so slowly itching closer. And the people? Easily poached. You’ll just find them leaving, migrating to other parts—believing their Alpha is not stable. After all, you had gone mad—and then you picked a human.”
He smiled, on the surface one of sympathy, but I, knowing him, knew a little too well that he was mad with greed. All he wanted was his daughter to be Luna. The power that came along with having the Alpha as his son-in-law was immense, and he would grow in influence. But even more so, I knew of her secret dealings with the Shadow—a mirror organization like the Council of Alphas.
“Leave,” I said, looking away. “I have a meeting. I cannot stay here and chat with you about your ideals. And no, I will not be keeping your daughter as a mate.”
“Rethink this,” he said as he stood to his feet. “It is only for your best interest and the best interest of this great pack. I do not do this for myself—as reasons, I have none.”
“Right,” I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “You absolutely gain nothing when your daughter is Luna. But if I take her, I will not touch her. She will be Luna entitled only. She will never have children. You will never be a grandfather.”
His smile faltered just a little bit. “She would be despised eventually, I’m sure. The people will come to love the human. Maybe that human is the one I will copulate with—I cannot help that, after all.”