Mated to the Alpha King (A Royal’s Tale Book 1)

Done—finally!

Packing had never been my forte. In fact, I absolutely detested packing. Maybe it was because the number of books and other things I possessed seemed impossible to place in tonnes of boxes.

After slapping duct tape across the box, I picked up a marker and marked it Theia’s Books #3.

When the box was pushed aside carefully, I finally let out a sigh of relief as I wiped away a layer of sweat that had accumulated on my forehead, though it had only been two minutes since I had wiped it. I lived in the warm state of California, and it was summer, so naturally, the heat was killing me.

A single thing one should always know about me: I am not built for heat. So when my dad came home one afternoon and declared that we were moving from California to a cold region on the outskirts of Seattle called Piedmont, I was actually very excited.

Well, that was until I realized that I was now going to have to join a new high school in the middle of the year and leave my best friend, Casey, behind. And with this being senior year—with prom and all—well, it sucked.

Had I been at my old school, Stinson High, I would have at least had my best friend to accompany me. The thought of being at home, all alone, on prom night only helped in making me sweat more.

My family consisted of my dad, Arthur Anderson, who was a professor of history and literature; my mom, Maia Anderson, who was a designer and entrepreneur—big word, I know—and me, Theia, a senior student in high school, hoping to become a criminologist or psychologist—whichever came first. I also had a very strange fascination with history. I guess Dad’s genes rubbed off on me that way.

Another soft puff of a sigh escaped me as I lazily picked myself off the floor and dragged myself towards the bathroom. I had only two hours before we were to load everything and leave, and I knew, in this heat, I would need every minute of it.

Minutes later, as I stood under my cool shower and slowly looked around my bathroom for the final time, I let a few stray tears flow with the water as I washed the tiny ache in my chest away.

It seemed like a day had passed when I found myself scrubbed and fresh, walking out into my bedroom in a towel.

A loud yelp left my lips when I suddenly found myself on the floor, a heavy weight on me.

“Don’t go!” Casey cried, hysterical against me.

I would have cried too, but the fact that I was currently sprawled on the floor with only a towel on and my hundred-something-pound best friend on top of me was a little . . . suffocating. I was merely five foot something after all.

“Need . . . to . . . breathe, Casey!” I managed to gasp as I writhed under her, trying to escape her deadly grip.

Immediately, Casey stilled above me.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” she muttered hurriedly, becoming beet red. She got off me and stood before giving me her hand and helping me stand up.

On my feet, I sighed as I brought her in for a hug. “We will talk every night on Skype or FaceTime. And then there is Messenger. We will always talk. It’ll be like I’m not even away, I promise,” I said to assure her as I pulled away and, losing my towel, put on my clothes.

Casey sighed too, her sigh a little heavy—a little scared.

“What if we don’t?”

I smiled—a broken small smile. My hand found Casey’s again, and I gave it a comforting squeeze. “No matter what happens, whether we talk every day or not at all for months, when we do talk or meet, we will always be the same: best friends.”

A small tear dropped down Casey’s cheek, and she nodded, chuckling against the moisture on her face.

“You better tell me everything when you get there!” she blurted out, smiling a bit, as she folded and placed my towel in a plastic bag before packing it in my suitcase.

My room was nearly empty. It was literally stripped bare except for the built-in bookshelves and a few boxes and suitcases that were still lying around waiting to be hurled into the moving truck.

Smiling, I nodded and pulled Casey in for a final hug. “We’ll visit each other on the breaks. I’ll miss you, you know?”

Casey nodded. “I’ll miss you too, Thi.”

The loud stomping noises alerted us both of someone coming up the stairs, and soon enough, there was a knock on the door.

“Theia, are you done?”

“Yeah, Dad, come in!” I replied as I picked up my jacket—just in case it got cold—and slipped into my flip-flops, which seemed like an irrational choice considering the contrast between the two. But I wouldn’t need my shoes in the car anyway; I’d probably just have them tucked under me throughout the ride.

The door opened instantly, and in walked my dad with two bulky men. Smiling at me softly, they strode towards the boxes and picked them up before leaving the room even barer.

Again, Casey and I stood in my empty room—a room we’d had dozens of sleepovers in; a room we played with our dolls in; a room we gossiped, planned, and plotted in; a room we did our homework and fangirled in.

I sighed.

“I think we should go now . . .”

“Uh-huh.”

Casey and I walked downstairs hand in hand.

I took a deep breath as I stood in the living room. The place had a lot of my memories. I had basically grown up in this area. Well, that was until I turned sixteen and got the television set up in my own room.

My eyes closed, and I let out a deep breath and whispered, “I’ll miss you, home. Good bye.”

“Theia, sweetie!”

My mom’s voice rang out to me like a fire truck siren, and I instantly opened my eyes and walked out of the threshold, letting Dad lock the door and hand over the keys to our real estate agent, Vanessa, who had managed to sell our home for a very, very reasonable price.

The day outside was bright, happy, vibrant, and warm. The heat suddenly didn’t bother me anymore. I looked around my neighborhood and smiled. I would be taking all the good memories with me as I went. As much as I was sad, truth be spoken, I was also secretly excited. I didn’t know what it was, but I felt like something was waiting for me in Piedmont—an adventure waiting to be lived, maybe a mystery waiting to be unraveled. The little knowledge of the new feeling in me made it all the more alluring, and somehow, secretly, I couldn’t wait to reach Piedmont.

“Bye, Cas. I’ll call you when I get there, okay?” I muttered, suddenly holding back my tears, as I was pulled into a hug.

“Uh-huh, we will always talk. And if we can’t, we will at least message when we can,” Casey said to assure me as she hugged me.

Smiling slightly, I pulled out of the hug and, with a final wave, climbed into our SUV, then watched my best friend stand in my yard, in my neighborhood, for the last time as my dad drove off.

It felt like I was leaving a part of me here. But then again, I was becoming whole.

***

“Are you excited, darling?” Mom suddenly asked me, cutting the silence that had been building up since we left seven hours previously.

The ride from California to Piedmont was fifteen hours and thirteen minutes, and already in these seven hours we had stopped twice to fuel up the SUV and buy some snacks for along the way.

“Yeah, Mom. Are you?” I murmured back, knowing full well that both my parents were extremely excited for this “new chapter” in their life.

Dad would not stop talking about the amount of brilliant literature the new university he had managed to attain a job in had, not to mention the immense raise in wage and position. He was ecstatic. As for Mom, her boutiques and salons around California were still running, but although she would have to fly back and forth every once in a while, her excitement about opening a new boutique and salon in Piedmont was especially overwhelming.

“Oh, I am so excited!” she squealed, clapping her hands together, before turning towards Dad and placing a loving kiss on his cheek.

It was normal for me to witness their weird romance, so I just rolled my eyes and looked at the passing view.

“The new house is bigger, Theia,” Dad said with a chuckle, looking at me through the rearview mirror.

I knew he was trying to make me feel better about moving and leaving my old friends and life behind, so I just grinned at Dad and spoke the first thing I thought would make him worry less: “I get the room with the best view!”

Dad chuckled again and nodded, making my grin widen. It wasn’t hard to notice that I was a papa’s girl, and with me being the only child, he doted on me. I was his little Fuzzybottom—not that my bottom was fuzzy, but just because—and, well, he was my hero.

“One of the best things about the house is that it has great views for all the rooms. But you’ll receive the one with the best view, we promise. We should be settled by tomorrow. Hopefully, the day after, you and I could go shopping!” Mom squealed as she turned to look at me.

Not excited at all, I somehow managed to produce a fake smile and plaster it across my face. Nobody messed with Mom when it came to shopping—nobody.

Once her attention was elsewhere, I turned around to see how far behind us our moving truck was. Before turning back around, I brought out a book from my backpack, plugged my earbuds into my iPod, and played “Davy Jones Music Box and the Rainy Mood.” Somehow, the rumbles of thunder and the soft sound of the tune playing together created a better reading mood for me.

Shoving the iPod inside my pant pocket, I flipped through the pages of my newest read, Indiscretions; slumped back into a more comfortable position; and began journeying once again, into a different time, a whole different world—this time, into the world of Lord Lockwood.

***

“Thi, we are here!”

I mumbled a few incoherent words before turning in my bed.

Need sleep.

“Thi, wake up!” Dad’s voice urged, before I was being shaken by the shoulder and lightly tapped on my face.

What the heck?

“Alright, alright!” I grumbled as I sat up on my bed and opened my eyes.

I gasped, my face becoming warmer by the second, as I finally realized that I was in our SUV and a couple of people were staring at me, smiling like a bunch of weirdos—my folks included.

My cheeks burned as my eyes rested on a blond-haired guy smirking at me, an ax in his hand and resting on his shoulder.

What was he? A huntsman? I rolled my eyes in my mind as I pushed any budding crush away. I was more of a Beauty and the Beast girl anyway.

Finally managing to look away, I smiled back at the rest of the folks smiling at me, who were two slightly elderly couples.

“Oh, she’s so beautiful!” the red-headed one of the two gushed as I shoved my iPod and book into my backpack and got out of the SUV.

“Thanks,” I mumbled back, knowing full well that the blond was still staring, smirking at me.

“Hello, dear. Welcome to Piedmont! I’m Jane, and this here is my son, Alex, and my husband, Hugh. We live just there, beside your house. Those there are Mary and her husband, Grant. They have a son too, Matthew. He is good friends with Alex here,” Jane told me excitedly, and I smiled back brightly, mirroring her excitement.

“It’s nice to meet you all. I am really excited to be here,” I replied happily as I extended my hand towards each one of them. I shook their hands softly but only waved awkwardly at the smirking blond, Alex.

That boy seemed as beautiful as he seemed arrogant—beautiful nonetheless. But then again, arrogance trumps beauty any day.

My new home stood tall and proud, with red bricks and a posh-looking French door. It seemed to have at least three floors, taking into account the small attic on the third floor. Even the front yard seemed beautifully cultivated.

I waited for Jane and Mary to start talking to Mom, for Hugh and Grant to start helping my dad, and for the movers to place all our stuff into the house before picking up one of my smaller book boxes, then I made a run for it.

I dashed into the house as quickly as I could, only stopping to grab Dad and drag him away, begging him to show me my room.

He grinned excitedly and, exchanging a knowing look with both Hugh and Grant, led me upstairs until we came to a stop on the very end of the hallway. He unlocked the room and opened the doors, motioning me to walk in.

I walked in, and froze. There in front of me was the most amazing view of a castle perched on a mountain surrounded by pine trees and fog. Beyond it, I could see water. Maybe a lake? Maybe the sea . . . It was actually hard to say through the fog.

I turned around, already readying myself to leap on Dad, but frowned when I noticed that I was now alone in my room, and the blond, Alex, was standing at the doorway with the usual smirk on his face, his ax missing.

The urge of just smacking his smirk away seemed quite strong. And it would be easy too.

Bam! And voila—smirk-less!

“That is Dovelore Castle, owned by His Grace, Alexander Whitlock—His Grace because some say his grandfather was a Duke and that has now been passed down to him. He is also very rich—if the castle isn’t proof enough—but not by heritage. Most of it is self-made and all. We are supposed to visit that castle this year, you know . . . Mr. Whitlock is providing one lucky student with a full scholarship to any university he or she wishes to attend and another lucky student a chance to stay in his castle on the breaks, with full access to his library and a full tour around the castle—if he or she wants, that is,” Blond spoke, his gaze not once shifting from the castle, which although it looked quite brooding, looked equally inviting, as if charming me into visiting. There definitely was something about that castle.

Suddenly very curious, I turned towards Blond and asked, “What would you like?”

He turned his attention towards me, and for the first time in the fifteen minutes that we had known each other, he smiled at me—a real smile.

“Although the most brilliant literature is available in the castle library and I would love to roam the dungeons and secret pathways where the pirates were slain and beasts held hostage, I want the scholarship.”

I nodded and turned back to look at the castle.

What beasts was Blond talking about?

The feeling of my feet pushing themselves forward registered slowly before I found myself staring at the castle, my hands sliding the window open.

Is someone living there right now? How many rooms could there be?

I swept my gaze along the windows of the castle but stilled when I saw someone staring back at me. It seemed like a he. His bulky build made sure to show no confusion even though he was so, so far away. It was quite distinguishable that he was wearing a white shirt, but that was all that could be made out; the rest was a blur.

“Hey, Blond, come here!” I whispered, motioning Blond to move forward.

“ ‘Blond’?” he whisper-yelled, sounding outraged, as he made his way to me.

The man was still staring. His stare seemed so intense that it made hairs stand on the back of my neck.

I turned towards Blond, wishing he could see the strange man just like I did. Castles are always haunted, but truly, the one I would be seeing day and night could not possibly be haunted, could it?

“Can you see the man?”

“What man? I see no man?” Blond whispered back, narrowing his eyes, as he looked in the direction of the castle.

I turned towards the castle again. The man was gone.

“He was just there, I promise!” I whisper-yelled, putting my palm on my heart.

Blond looked at me, frowning for a second, before his smile came back—the friendly one.

“I can help you decorate your room,” he said, looking as if he really were interested in sorting out my mess.

I smiled as I brushed a strand of brown hair behind my ear, silently thanking God for Blond’s sudden offer. Decorating my bedroom would have taken me all day and night otherwise.

“Let’s do this.”