Page 62 of Rejected and Pregnant By the Alpha King

“Your Grace.” Silas, another one of my advisors, steps forward. “We will be able to manage without you if you must go.”

“I am more worried about our pack’s fragility than our strength at the borders,” I say.

He shifts uncomfortably while Constance’s frown deepens.

Unfortunately, I make a good point. Only those in this room know the details of my pack’s elders and the pressure they’ve put on me as my ascension grows nearer. All five of them are ruthless in their wants for tradition, hence them forcing me into taking a Luna, among other things.

Their steadfast rigidity has made all of our lives rather difficult over the past few months and has made mourning our previous king a fleeting thing.

With Nyx Calloway coming into the picture to complicate things, I don’t want to rock the boat any more than I already have.

Raine’s betrayal was a stark blow, one that I’m still not sure I can recover from. However, regardless of my own personal feelings, I must move forward and focus on this. At least it will keep me distracted for the time being.

“I…suppose you make a point.” Camden sighs. “Constance and I will go to the pack and talk to them. If they tell us nothing, we’ll stick around for a bit and try to talk to some of the pack members. Someone has to know something.”

I nod in agreement. “Of course. Keep me in the loop with whatever you find. I can work on things here while you two are there.”

“Will do, Your Grace.”

***

The elders call upon me sooner than I’m prepared for.

Their dark chambers are cool as I step inside them. The low lighting causes my night vision to slowly adjust before I make my way down the passageway, coming out on the other side where it opens up into a grand chamber.

Five of my elders sit uniformly in a line, all of them waiting for me to arrive.

Back a few decades ago, this position within the pack was not only respected but revered. To be an elder meant that you were above even the king who ruled you at some points. As the eldest and wisest of the authorities, their rulings typically took precedent.

However, that was decades ago, and times have changed.

No longer as alpha kings do we fear our neighbors or the humans that have slowly begun to surround us. We, as our own nations, have come together in times of need and relied on each other for guidance and not turned to those among us in our pack with higher social status.

I was raised on a healthy skepticism of the world around me. My mother was the smartest person I’ve ever known and to this day, years after her death, I still think that. She’d been our pack elders’ least favorite candidate out of the pool of potential Lunas, but she quickly caught my father’s eye with her wit and charm.

Oftentimes growing up, I’d been told by my elders that my mother was a prime example of whatnotto look for in a Luna. I could never understand it, my mother with her brilliance and her sun of a personality, how she couldn’t be their chosen favorite.

She’d been dimmed by her role as Luna by these same elders, slipping away over time as I grew older and our pack more demanding of her light, until there was nothing left of her to give.

I don’t know how Raine would have fared, standing before them. I’d been making plans to ease her into it, to try to cultivate the perfect time to present her to my elders and the rest of my pack.

All of that had been for nothing, though.

“Aiden.” Boleus, our youngest elder, leans forward. The lines in his forehead are deep, distracting me temporarily with the shape of them. “You are making progress on your ascension?”

I nod. “Yes. It’s nearly upon us.”

“Then why have we not been invited to talk to you and your Luna?”

I hold in a wince.

I highly doubt any “advice” they have for us would be of any use. As it stands now, Anais and I are hardly getting along. That is not something I want to present to our elders, especially with their keen eyes.

My parents mated for love, which is a rare occurrence in our world. And while my mating to Anais would be seen as typical, the divide between us would not.

I’d be grilled until I was on my knees and begging for mercy about why my resistance to my future Luna was so staunch. Our elders would be none too happy to realize that I’d met my fated mate and subsequently cast her out.

Fated mates, above all else, ruled even elders’ choices in matchmaking.

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