Chapter 65 - The Alpha King and His Second Chance

Edward

"Do you have to go?" Stella asked, a little pout on her face.

"Yes baby, I need to help King Derek. But I will be back in a few days."

"We are gonna have lots of fun together though." Ella said, trying to encourage my pups.

I felt guilty leaving, I was going to miss them. It wasn't the first time I had even been away from them, but it was definitely going to be the longest I would be gone. Ella and Jackson temporarily moved onto my floor with all of their pups so my pups still felt at home while being cared for by their Aunt and Uncle. My plan was to help Derek during the week and spend the weekends with my pups. That is if everything goes according to plan. I don't know what King Dereks kingdom will throw our way. Hopefully, I won't need to spend so much time there, but I highly doubt that.

"I love you all. Please be good for Uncle Jackson and Aunt Ella. Listen to them, follow their rules. I'll be back before you know it." I said, giving each of my pups a hug goodbye.

I managed to pry my pups off of me with just enough time to get to the airport to catch a flight to Dereks palace. I still had to drive an hour to get to his kingdom, but it was still the fastest option. The plain ride was uneventful, thankfully, and it was easy to pick up my rental. So far so good. I drove an hour into the forest on off-road paths that eventually led to the southern territories pack lands. I was greeted by pot holes and a guard station with no guards. Lovely.

Not only did I not see any guards, but the few people that I did see in the run-down-looking ghost town were all angry-looking, like they wanted to start a fight. That wasn't reassuring. I slowly drove through the city, weaving around potholes and getting more and more dirty looks. When I finally found what I assumed was the palace, I pulled up front and parked the car next to a fallen over tree, thankful I paid for the extra insurance the rental place offered. It has been years since I have visited the southern kingdom. I was a pup the last time I came here, actually. It was never as nice looking as our kingdom, but now it looks like it just needed to be demolished and built from scratch.

I walked up the broken concrete steps that led to the worn-down-looking wooden double doors. I knocked and waited for someone to let me in. After a minute, I knocked again, feeling a bit irritated from the lack of response. The door creaked open, I could see half of a young man looking back at me through the small opening.

"What do you want?" He snapped.

"I'm here to see King Derek." I clicked my tongue, fighting back the urge to teach this pup some manners.

"Who are you?" He said, eyeing me warily.

"King Edward. King Derek is expecting me." I said firmly.

"Uh....wait here." He said, slamming the door in my face. I could hear his steps start to fade, followed by some yelling and finally the front doors swung open with Derek there to greet me.

"Edward, thank goddess you are here, please come in." He stepped aside, welcoming me inside. At least someone here has manners.

I looked around, very unimpressed by what I was seeing. There was obvious water damage, shown by the stains on the ceiling. It smelled like smoke and maybe even weed. The palace was dimly lit, probably doing me a favor from seeing the rest. We passed through several rooms, all needed patchwork and a fresh coat of paint, electrical too.

"Sorry for the mess..." Derek apologized.

"No need," I dismissed. It wasn't his fault after all.

"Please have a seat." He said, leading me into a small office with tons of paperwork just lying on the ground in a heap. I sat in the torn-up leather chair across from his desk while Derek took calculated steps to get to his spot behind his desk. "Where should we start?" He asked, looking at me like a deer in headlights.

"Do you have bank account information?" I asked, figuring that he wouldn't know the numbers off hand.

"Uhh...I think I saw a statement somewhere..." He said, tearing through the piles of papers on his desk.

It took him a few minutes to find the papers, but once he did, we called the bank and asked for account information. It was a werewolf run bank, making it easy for us to transfer everything from King Bruno's name to Dereks. All we had to do was fax over his title as king and they allowed him access to all the accounts. Unfortunately, they were all in the negative.

"I guess we wont be updating things anytime soon..." Derek sighed.

"No, this place needs help and fast. I'm not convinced that the building won't give out at any moment. I will loan you the money." I said while dialing my contractor Steve to get some quotes. He said he would be available to come look at the palace next week. Goddess I hoped this building could last that long. "What staff do you have here? What are their payscales?"

"So about that...."

"What?" I asked, already hating what he was about to tell me.

"The people working here used to get paid in other ways besides money....so I fired them all. My only 'worker' is my Beta Jeff, who I just hired this morning."

"Well, at least you have a Beta." I said, running my hands through my hair. "What are you paying him?"

"I told him he could live here for free as payment," Derek said proudly.

I thought a vein might burst in my temple from the pure unawareness Derek seemed to have. I'm convinced Levi and Xander would know more about running a palace than Derek did right now.

"Okay." I nodded "You might not know this, but Beta's, Gamma's, Delta's, and all other on-site staff get to live in the palace for free. It's a courtesy and an expectation, because their primary job is to serve you. So we will need to revisit Beta Jeff's payscale." I said nicely.

"Oh...really?" Derek asked, preplexed. "Thats pretty cool."

"Why dont we start from the top? I don't know how things were being run here or what you know and don't know, so forgive me if I ask some trivial questions."

"Okay." He nodded, looking more relieved than ever.

I started with the basics. I asked him what he thought the job of the King was, then corrected him on what he was actually supposed to do. Then we worked down the line; Beta, Gamma, Delta. We even talked about him finding a Luna which he seemed less than interested in at the moment. Everything he thought was wrong. Everything he grew up with and was taught was wrong. It was sad to see how someone as smart as him was set up for failure. Derek was thankfully eager to learn and a quick learner at that. He had good manners and speech, which would help when he had to conduct negotiations one day.

We spent several hours just going through paperwork. Goddess, I hate paperwork. More than half of it was junk, all outdated and useless. What we did find had red flags written all over them. Past due balances, loans up the ass, a few questionable treaties. King Bruno fucked everything up. The kingdom didn't even have a reliable source of income. In my kingdom we had a tech company that brought in a hefty chunk of our finances. The remainder came from a few other smaller companies and, of course, tax dollars. This pack had next to nothing. We needed to find something and fast to get this place back on its feet or soon the bank owners would be crowned king.

"Bro! There is a mob outside!" A very frazzled looking Jeff said, bursting into Dereks' office. We would need to work on him too.

"What do they want?" Derek asked. Jeff just shrugged and ran to the window, stepping over our junk pile of papers to get to the window. Goddess, I don't know if he was even old enough to be a Beta now that I have got a better look at him.

"Dude I dont know." Jeff said, peering through a broken spot on the dusty blinds.

"You will address him as King Derek or Alpha in the presence of another." I repremanded Jeff. "Now lets go see what they want." I stood and casually walked down the hall. Derek and Jeff followed behind me like scared little pups. When we reached the front lobby, I stepped aside so Derek could take the lead.

"What, me?" He asked with a worried look on his face. I sighed and flung the door open, gesturing for Derek to go first. He gulped but headed towards the mob with his head held high like how I had coached him earlier today. Unfortunately, that's all he did.

"What is the meaning of this?" I asked from behind Derek using my booming alpha voice.

"We are here to challenge King Derek for his title." A young pup said, his voice less than confident, his eyes refusing to meet mine. He had to be a teen still. I could sense he had a wolf, so he was at least sixteen, if I had to guess, he was maybe eighteen or nineteen at best.

"On what grounds? What reason do you have to challenge your new king?"

"Well-"

"Because I imagine that you are aware that a challenge for the king's title is to the death. Are you prepared to die for your cause?"

"John stop!" A female around his age pleaded. "We are sorry, we are just scared." She said.

"Why are you scared?" I asked.

"We don't want another king like the last one." The girl said shyly, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Her face was flaming red in embarrassment.

"I am nothing like my father." Derek finally spoke up. "He was a monster. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing but I'm working on it. King Edward is helping me figure things out. But I promise you, things are about to change for the better around here."

- - - - - -

"Dude, I cant believe that worked!" Derek said excitedly, putting his hand out for a fist bump. I humored him and returned the fist bump. After speaking with the group, they left peacefully, happy with the news of change on the horizon.

"Communication is everything. Openly talking with your people will help avoid many misconceptions. We should send out a letter to all of the kingdom and packs informing them of the changes to come. And get 'dude' out of your vocabulary." I said, taking a seat back in his office.

"Got it. What changes are we making?" Derek asked.

"Get a pen and paper." I said, flicking my head at his desk.

"Okay....got it." He said, looking at me expectantly.

"What would you like to see changed around here?"

"Well, no more slavery for one..." He snorted.

"Write that down. What else?" I asked. Derek looked stunned for a split second but proceeded to write.

"Crime is pretty bad around here..."

"Write it down. What else?"

"We don't really have any businesses around here....maybe encourage people to open their own shops?"

"Add fixing the roads and abandoned buildings to the list too." I nodded.

We continued making a list of all the changes Derek wanted to make during his rule. It took us over an hour. Once we had the list, we came up with a timeline and expectations for the packs. Derek wouldn't be able to fix everything himself, he would need all the alpha's in his territory to step up and help make these changes. We composed it all into a detailed letter and addressed them to each of the packs and the residents who lived in his kingdom. I warned Derek that he would more than likely have a three-way split. A third would love the changes, a third would hate them, and a third would be indifferent or have another idea in mind. He needed to prepare himself for all the curve balls that were about to be thrown his way. This is when real challenges for his title would start to appear, not half-ass challenges from pups who didn't know how to fight. It would come from dangerous men who enjoyed killing their prey.

Along with the letter, we also sent out enlistment forms for any interested wolves to fill out, since my men and King Jesse's men had just killed most if not all of what would have been Dereks warriors. I called Andrew and had him look over the number for the eastern kingdom and they had money that they were able to loan as well, so we were able to hire warriors and pay Derek and Jeff and even a few more staff members for the palace.

Derek was a strong and skilled fighter, as shown on the battlefield, so he would begin leading training for the new warriors while I watched and tweaked things here and there. This wasn't going to be an easy task, but it needed to be done.

"Thank you again for all your help today," Derek said while leading me to a guest room.

"Of course. I am happy to help." I nodded.

"Here we go." Derek said, stopping at one of the less awful looking rooms.

"Thank you. I will see you at 6am tomorrow morning for morning training." I said, heading into the room. It had a musty smell to it. I wasn't too sure if it was from mold or maybe something had died in here.

"Six...in the morning?" Derek asked, not seeming too fond of early mornings.

"Better get some shut eyes." I chuckled, shutting my door and turning to face my room.

I threw my suitcase down on a dresser and then went and laid down on top of the old-looking bed in my clothes from earlier, not wanting to contaminate my clean clothes that were safely tucked away in my luggage. I let out a deep breath, my body thankful for the bed, even in its less than sanitary condition. I briefly heard a crack and a second later my mattress was dipping in the middle. In all my years I never broke a bed by simply lying on it. If I broke a bed it was from some good hard work and was well worth it. I could only hope this was a good sign that all of this work I was putting in would be well worth it too.