Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Alexander's POV

After a long night with lots of twists, turns, and surprises waiting for me, I opened my eyes to see that it was already morning and I had woken up late. I jumped out of bed quickly because there's something scheduled for today, and of all the things that I should do or like, this is not one of them. I'm not allowed to wake up late today because of the meeting scheduled between me and the pack elders.

Now I'm definitely going to miss it unless I can somehow have my bath and a meal within the next couple of minutes and rush out, because it's almost time already. "Fuck," I think to myself, wishing I could have more control over this situation. When I think about it, the only thing I could have done is not go out in the night, but then I wouldn't be aware of how suspicious Nora is, and my even more suspicious Beta demon who was cooking up something that I needed to be very careful about.

No proof yet, so it was best that I stayed in the shadows, watching for more signs and waiting for events to unfold on their own. All I knew to do now was to be wary of both of them. She had become more likable to me—I was falling head over heels in love with her—but at what price? She seemed to also have some kind of secrets around her, that secrecy that I wanted to be in on. I wanted to know, but she wouldn't tell me, so I have to find out by myself.

I just shook my head, blinking rapidly as I realized I'm still on my bed, just trying to ruminate over the events of last night and figure out a couple of things for myself. I don't have that luxury, and I don't have the time to do that. It's time for me to work out a way for myself in order not to go through the pack meeting daze, because it's going to look bad on me as the Alpha. If I don't have the favor of many of the elders due to keeping them waiting, I'm really going to find it difficult to function and make my decisions.

I knew from experience that I was really screwed up when I had my bath and came to see that it was already time. I hadn't even eaten yet. Well, it seemed like I would just have to face it. I think in hindsight now, I had missed a couple of meetings trying to get there in time previously, but not like this. It always ended up with my mood being sour. My morning food was something that I never missed no matter what, but this time around I didn't really have a choice, and so I was going to have to skip out on this.

It's not as if I won't be late anyway, I thought, wondering how long it was going to take for me to get dressed. Now, if dressing was something I could skip, but it wasn't, and it was absolutely necessary that I did what was required and then came to the meeting looking decent enough. I smiled bitterly to myself as I started wearing my clothes. I might as well take my time and come completely late, but thinking about it now, I decided that it's best to salvage as much of my reputation and their favor as possible. I've done wrong, and it's best I rush over as quickly as possible to try to correct it instead of completely throwing it away like I was planning to right now.

I took in a deep breath, standing tall as I looked at the handsome face in the mirror that was looking like a cursed man. So sad that I just couldn't let myself become very involved with Nora as much as I was starting to like her. She was dangerous in her own right, and she would be the end of me if I approached her without much caution like I had intended to do. The secrets shrouding her were even more, and I saw them as astronomical presently after everything that had taken place the previous night.

I might have ignored them, saw them as something minor previously, but right now I knew better, and I was not going to start pretending that it wasn't a serious issue at hand. "I wish I could just ask her about it," I said to myself. I had thought about this before, but this thought just kept recurring. I went out of the room then, speeding as quickly as possible to the large hall. Unfortunately, the large hall where we were going to meet isn't even in the palace itself—it's in another building where the workers usually stay.

I made my way as quickly as possible. I'm glad when I enter the room and see that I'm not all that late because a couple of seats are empty. However, when I realize that the empty seats belong to the Luna herself and also to the demon, I find myself smiling bitterly. It's the three of us that are late today, and therefore the elders are definitely going to be super mad.

Now if any one of the elders were late along with them and one of them was early, it wouldn't have been all that bad. But right now it was absolutely terrible for the royal family. The demon probably didn't count, but with my knowledge of exactly why he was late—which was most likely the same reason why I was late, by virtue of sleeping very late in the night—I found myself frowning deeply.

However, I couldn't really say anything as I took my seat and looked at them, deciding that it was a good idea for me to wait for the rest to show up while at the same time thinking of a proper apology to get back on their good terms. One of them cleared his throat, looking at me. Clearly, he wanted his apology now, but I'm not going to give it. I don't intend to do it just because he wants me to. I relaxed, reclining in my seat and turned to my phone, checking a couple of messages.

I knew that my actions were probably disrespectful—maybe I should conform to his will just because I was wrong in the first place and try to get back in his good graces—but I just couldn't bring myself to. As it happened, I heard a couple of footsteps and shuffling feet. I raised my eyes to see the Luna rushing quickly into her place and the demon rushing even quicker after her to his own seat.

Looking at the full house now, I knew that it was time for me to start talking. I had to give them my apology first of all before I said anything else, so I started. The words came out of me professionally—I was a trained public speaker, and therefore I was able to say everything I had without flinching and without any real emotion within me, even though I made sure to make my voice full of passion and confidence. Doing what I didn't want to do and pretending to do such with a smile—that was one of my key traits as the Alpha, one of the first things I learned in politics, and it was serving me up till now.

They looked up at me in approval now, and I found myself smiling. "All right then, let's get this meeting started," I said. "We're not here to joke around, and since we have addressed this issue, let's move on to something more serious," I started, looking around at them. "Does anyone have anything else to say?"

I heard the shuffling of feet. Someone was standing up. Okay, maybe I thought that this would be too easy. He looked at the Luna, questioning expression in his eyes as he pointed his finger accusingly. "Why is she late also?" he asked. "Is this some kind of arrangement between the both of you?" he questioned, his voice and words sharper than I thought they should be.

I frowned at him. "Sit down," I commanded coldly. He obeyed me, but not promptly, and he still looked annoyed. I could understand why he was calling this into mind—he seemed to not be happy that she was late as well as I was. It was disrespectful on our part, disrespectful to the elders, but did that mean that he should also be disrespectful to us? Did that mean he had the right to point that finger at her when there was such an obvious difference in our ranking?

I contemplated for a while, trying to see how I should handle the situation. Finally, I looked at him and spoke, my words cold and my voice level. "I sincerely apologize for her sake also," I said, reckoning that the reason why he was talking at all was that he didn't want her to simply go away scot-free. "I hope that's fine with you?" I questioned. He didn't say anything, but it wasn't just him—all the elders had cold eyes. I wondered what was wrong because something definitely was. Could it be that they were all collectively offended by our lateness, or was it something more?