Alpha’s Second Choice

Dante sank into his large office chair as his eyes darted on the piling folders on the desk. It was going to take him days to go through all the cases and read them thoroughly. He called Caleb via mind link.

‘Yes boss’.

‘Caleb, send all the royal healers to your pack immediately’, he told his right hand.

‘Sure, but why?’, Caleb’s big mouth wanted to know everything as always.

‘Just do it’, with that, he cut off the mind link. Caleb was the Alpha of Ice warrior pack and could easily keep the royal healers there for a couple of weeks. It was wrong to do this, but he wanted more time with Jo. Just the thought of parting and sending her off to the human settlements made him feel sick.

As he opened the first case file, he took a deep breath in. It was time to get to work

*

Lucy yawned as she stretched her hands, the birds were chirping outside, and the sunrise was falling shyly in her room. It was a good-sized room considering that she was not really a special guest for the royal kingdom.

Dante revealed himself to be the Alpha king and offered them a few days rest at the royal kingdom. After Jo accepted, she did not ask any further questions because she trusted Jo completely. Besides, the encounter with the demons was a sharp reminder of how dangerous the no-man’s border was, and it was probably better to get escorted to the human settlements by the royal guards as Dante promised.

‘NOOOOO’, she heard a loud cry as she quickly rushed to the room next door.

Banging on the doors, Mina finally unlocked the lock. She had a bored and tired expression on her face as if to say ‘I don’t get paid enough to deal with this’.

‘What’s wrong?’, Lucy asked as she pushed past Mina and found Daya crying on one of the twin beds.

‘Drake married someone else. I am definitely #TeamZackery now’, the green haired fairy dramatically rolled around with the blanket.

‘Ah, so you are at that chapter. Well understandable’, she smiled sitting next to her.

‘Good morning girls’, Jo walked into the room as well looking all fresh. She had her red hair tied up neatly into a ponytail and was wearing a navy-blue polo shirt and smart pants.

‘Wow Miss Jolene are you going to your 8 O’clock scheduled business conference?’, Mina teased, pointing out her unusual choice of clothing.

‘Let me be your assistant and make important phone calls for you!’, Daya volunteered.

‘Phone call?’, Jo asked curiously as if the word was almost alien to her.

‘Come on Jo. Phones? Mobile phones? Telephones? Ringing any bells now?’, Lucy asked amazed.

‘I don’t know what they are?’, was her reply to her astonished friends.

‘And I thought the fairies were the one living under the cave with no technology. Turns out there was a bigger fish out there. No pun intended’, her blonde friend poked at her.

‘Okay, okay. Technology isn’t really a big thing in the sea world. And I didn’t have to use it when in hiding. So, what’s the big deal about it anyways?’.

‘You can send messages through the device. Humans have advanced technologies though they are physically weak. One of their greatest creations is phones!’, Daya added in as Lucy nodded by her side.

Mina was already back in her bed snoring, unbothered by everything going around her.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

‘Really? Like telepathy?’, Jo asked, interested in learning something new.

‘Sort out like pigeon messages. But you send it using the phone and it’s delivered within seconds’, Lucy explained more.

‘Fascinating’, Jo nodded her head as she had her right hand rubbing her chin.

‘What’s fascinating? Tell me too, please’, the wild royal princess barged into the room, jumping straight on to Jo’s lap. ‘Pretty siren hair’.

‘How did she-‘.

‘She sniffed my true scent and found out herself. Evelyn really is gifted’, Jo replied as she tried holding the princess steadily on her lap. She still did not know how old the little princess was, but she could not be more than 11 or 12 years old.

‘What were you guys talking about?’, the princess stirred happily.

‘Phones’, they replied in unison.

‘Why?’, the princess asked, as a lock of her right dark hair fell on her face.

‘Because I have heard they are magical like pigeon letters. But way faster’, Jo responded pushing the princess’s hair back, behind her ears.

‘Ahem ahem’, someone forced a cough out. Jo found an elderly lady standing near the door.

‘Princess, your bath is ready, please come with me’, the lady spoke calmy.

‘No, I want to stay with my new friends’, the princess declined outrightly, clinging to Jo.

‘Please princess. If Olivia sees that you still haven’t had your bath and groomed yourself properly, she will not be happy’. There was a hint of warning in the lady’s voice as if she was terrified of the person she was mentioning.

‘Evelyn, go have your bath first. We will wait for you’, Jo encouraged the little girl as Jo tried removing her little hands from around her shoulder.

‘Promise?’, the princess stared directly at Jo, her silver eye resembling her brother’s.

‘Promise’.

*

Soon after Evelyn was taken away for the bath, a couple of omegas attended to their rooms and gave them some clothes. Apparently, the royal mansion had strict dress code. Casual wear was not allowed unless you were in your own room. So, they had to change into long flowy dresses.

Jo had a light pink knee-length dress with short sleeves. Her friends all had similar looking flowy dresses, maybe it was better this way. The dress was nice and cool, a bit too airy but it would do for now.

Mina chose to sleep in; however, the rest of the girls went around touring the big royal mansion. They were not assigned any task or made to work. So, the king really was letting them rest, decently. Jo was saddened thinking she would have to leave once the rejection was made official. It was inevitable and she knew she had to face it sooner or later.

‘Miss Jo, the king has called for you’, one of the omegas nervously stepped forward and informed her. They were outside in the garden, still touring the big mansion.

‘Excuse me girls, you go ahead with the tour. I will be back’. Jo followed the omega through a series of never-ending staircase. Once they were outside a big steel door, the omega urged her to go ahead.

Jo made a fist and knocked on the door, very hardly. The steel was extremely thick, and the frames of the door was embedded with crescent moon sculptures.

‘Hey there’, Dante appeared as she stopped her hand mid-air.

‘You called me?’, she asked ignoring the pleasantries.

‘I did. There has been a slight error on my side Jo. Come in’, he gestured as he waited for her to step inside his office.

She took a long breath in as the room was heavily filled with his scent.

‘This is going to be pure torture’, she thought to herself as she marched inside, taking a sit on his leather couch.

‘The royal healers have all gone to the Ice Warrior Pack due to something urgent. I am afraid you would have to wait until they return’. Dante tried to apologetically confess but Jo wasn’t buying it. He sounded happy instead of sad but who was she to call the king a liar?

‘Fine. Is that all? I will go since you look busy’, she said as she got up to leave.

‘Wait Jo’, Dante stopped her as he grabbed her hands in a rush. The warmth of his hands spread to her as she could feel the growing pull between them.

Dante cursed at himself. He deliberately spread out all his case file on the desk to look busy in front of her, hoping to impress her. But it seemed to have an opposite effect. In reality, he had not been able to focus on any of the cases at all. All he thought about was her hair, her waist, her lips, everything about her. It was driving him to the edge.

‘What is it?’, she blurted out nervously as the Alpha King still held her hands in his.

‘I am sorry if my sister disturbs you during your stay. She has been known to be- unusual and energetic. But just know that she is pure at heart and has no ill intention’, he finished letting go of her hands.

‘Of course, my king. I can tell when someone has good intentions and when someone does not’, she threw the low jabbed comment at Dante who only gently smiled.

‘Thank you, Jo’, he held the door for her as she left hastily. His aura and scent were addicting as if it was luring her to fall into its trap. Jo was definitely not weak-hearted, after years of fending for herself. But something about Dante, made her feel safe. ‘No, he rejected me. He doesn’t want me’, she reminded herself. It was true, no one really wanted her

In the dark realm

‘My king, I think we have found her’, one of the subordinates bowed and reported.

‘Think?’, Victor repeated as he killed the reporter within seconds, blood instantly splattering in his den.

‘Only report to me if you are sure. There is no room for assumptions here’, the king casually voiced as his other subordinates started breaking sweats. All classes of demons were present before him today. He had been disappointed in them to say the least. It had been more than five years and they still could not find her. How hard could it be?

‘Now tell me, what do you have to report?’, with a snap of the finger, the king resurrected his dead subordinate and made him alive again. ‘Choose your words carefully. There won’t be a next time’.

‘I-am sorry, my king. My two men were recently captured by one of the werewolf packs. But they escaped and came across a group of maidens. One of the maidens could cast dome spells. My men send me a message via telepathy that, she smelled different’.

‘And where are your men now?’, the king asked, his interest piqued.

‘They were both killed, and I lost contact. But this happened just a few days ago near the entrance of no-man’s border’.

‘That’s her no doubt, with her little dome spells’, the Demon king smiled remembering a distant memory fondly. ‘Send more men to the border and find her’.

Without wasting more time, the leader of the Aamon class stood up, bowing before Victor again and taking his leave.

‘I will have you by my side soon, Jolene’.