The Sovereign Heir (Book 1)

The thought of Ken and Aunt Renee dealing with the aftermath of Ashton’s betrayal is troubling to me. All those secluded packs were attacked with his help. You’d never find them if you hadn’t been there before unless you had access to the maps. They must hate me now. I am too afraid to read their thoughts while I am still at the territory and even more afraid to focus my ability toward them after all these days have passed by. I arrived at our command center and found Bryant in one of the older training rooms.

“Hey, big sis, why do you look so down?” My brother can always pick up on my moods, even with my poker face on. “If I tell you something you cannot under any circumstances tell Mom and Dad or even Nicole!” Bryant is slow and hesitant to respond, ”Oookay.”

Instead of going through everything, I had a better way to tell him. ”It’s better if I show you.” I sent everything I discovered to him; Bryant’s face appears grim. “Laina.” It was all he could say while hugging me tightly. “You should at least tell Nolan, especially if you haven’t decided what to do yet.”

He sounds just like grandpa, but how could you tell someone something this fucked up. “I know I need to; it’s just how do you tell someone ‘Hey I got to die to become immortal and be reborn. Maybe in another body decades from now, sorry I can’t be your mate for long. No worries it’s for the greater good’. You see how insane that sounds.”

Bryant considers what I said carefully and stood for a few moments before speaking, “You two should cherish the time you both have left, no matter how long that may be. Go home after you finish up your business at the pack. We can handle it without you for now. I know you won’t stay gone for long.” I hug my brother tightly and give him the scrolls before I left, to give to our parents.

“When did you become so wise?” He chuckles, “After all your torture lectures something was bound to stick.” Yana pops in while I was gathering my courage to see my godparents. I scoop her humongous body up with her immediately purring and she switches to my brothers hands.

I orb out closer to the pack house feeling the dread of facing Renee and Ken. “What the fuck are you doing here?” If it wasn’t the delta Donna, showing her ass like she could handle me. “Hello to you too, Donna.” Now she suddenly feels brazen enough to come closer in my face. ”Because of you my mate will never be Alpha. Ashton will be executed!”

Donna raises her hand to slap me, instead I caught her by her throat squeezing just enough not to cut off her air supply. ”No, you half-witted twit. It’s because of Ashton’s selfishness, jealousy and greed why he will never be Alpha. He hung himself out to dry. The only reason he reconsidered accepting you as a mate was purely a calculated maneuver. Ashton was forced to accept you and not because he wanted you . FYI, even if he marked you he would never stop screwing other supes from here to New York. He couldn’t even give two shits about you feeling it. Call yourself lucky to not have experienced such pain like so many other she-wolves have.”

Donna tries to swing at me despite my hold on her. My fangs elongate from my gums and Donna froze at the change in my eyes. “If you wish to live a moment past this very second, I suggest you move on from this and your fantasies of revenge against me. Is that crystal clear, Donna?”

She nods her head frantically indicating she understood me. Donna was retreating and I call out to her before she has gotten too far, ”Donna, seeking revenge is only going to have your life end the same way Ashton’s will. Remember that.” I watch Donna run off into the woods near the pack house. I am assured my last warning finally registered to her. I hope she has a good life with a second chance mate, she deserves it after being saddled with Ashton.

I walk to the Luna’s office; Renee’s voice was low. I lightly knock on the door before opening it. Renee hung up the phone, coming over to me in a single bound. “Oh my goodness, Laina!” She is almost choking me in her hug. “Let me look at you. Oh my, look at your eyes, they’ve changed . Not a scratch on you!” She says this while planting kisses all over my face.

“Come sit, Sweetheart, let’s talk.” Renee closes her office door. “Does Uncle Ken hate me?” She is clearly shocked at my question. ”Why would you say that? He loves you, Laina. He just feels guilty, he feels he should have done more to prevent Ashton from doing all the horrible things he did. Especially, the first time he noticed his obsession with you.”

I don’t think Ashton’s obsession went unnoticed by a lot of people. Everyone blew it off as a crush, when in fact it was more of a deranged fixation. “Will Ken at least talk to me?” Renee hesitates a little trying to formulate a response in order to not hurt my feelings. “Sweetheart, your Uncle Ken isn’t quite ready yet. He is trying so hard to remain stoic as the Alpha. I am afraid seeing you may make him fall apart.”

I completely understand, hearing his jumbled thoughts confirms what Renee had said. “Okay, but please tell him he has nothing to feel guilty for. No matter how well you both raised your children, they will decide to do whatever they want regardless. Sometimes things have to playout a certain way for something amazing to happen.” Renee hugs me again, “I’ll tell him you said that.”

I walk back to where I came in. I could hear Ken and my father talking. ”I don’t want to step down and give my Alpha title to my nephew. He isn’t that bright and very lazy. He will put the pack into straight shit.” My dad chimes in, “Have you considered giving it to Nicole?”

“Nicole wouldn’t be interested in pack politics.”

“Ken, she is more suited for this than you know. Don’t rule her out just yet, she might surprise you. At least wait till her birthday before you make your decision.”

Bryant’s birthday is two days before hers. Little did anyone know; they were going to be mates. As soon as they finished talking I get a vision of my brother with Nicole holding a chubby and beautiful baby boy. My future nephew has our eyes, ”I think your father would have been honored we named our first born after him. He will be the future Alpha of Sedena Pack.”

I snap out of my push into the future. What did they mean he would have been honored. Is my godfather going to die? Ken can’t lose out on seeing his first grandchild after losing his son. I need to keep that vision on my soon to decipher pile. Before my Dad or Ken could smell me, I orb out.

I am back at the mansion waiting on my mate. His mother was arriving very soon for dinner, complicating an already complicated set of fuckery. This is going to be torture and a hard pill to swallow for both of us. I message Nolan again, telling him I am home and getting ready to greet his mother with Alexus.

I have a funny feeling she would be staying with us longer than King Alder. Again, he is typing and likely erasing his response. Nolan: [Will be back as soon as I can. I might not be back in time for dinner with my mother. I Love you.] Fucking great! Now I have to sit here, stewing in my own juices and entertain his mother. Lexi is pacing in the living room biting her nails.

“Lexi, stop it! I know you’re nervous about your mothers reaction to you being mated. I really don’t think you have anything to worry about. I sent some reassurance to my parents to help with the negotiations. You’ll be back with Maddox in no time. Your father will be leaving before the week is out.” Alexus’ eyes became wide and she begins sobbing. “Thank you so much, you don’t know how much this means to me. Our father has had a choke hold on our lives since we were babies. I just want to live my life and be free of him.”

I went up in the elevator to shower and change for Angelica’s arrival. I had prepped for dinner before I left for the realm. I made a mash up of different cuisine with coxinha as appetizers, my grandmothers oxtail recipe and black cake for dessert.

I felt like being in a petty mood and would send a picture of the food to Nolan. I might even be pettier and give the rest of the food to the guards. I sit in front of the mirror at my vanity box braiding my hair with speed, adding adornments every few braids. I am multi-tasking and also approving design changes from my designers and sending several of my summer designs over.

It is morbid but I also begin creating a last will in testament, leaving shares of my companies to my legion with the controlling majority to Bryant and Nolan. Our lawyer will get this in the morning once a tweaked a few things. I perform more mundane tasks by combing through my school email account to find my application for graduation is approved.

Many tasks to do and an unspecified amount of time to finish it all. Would I be okay with being reincarnated in a new body? Would Nolan wait for me? Is that even a fair thing to ask my mate? I couldn’t keep dwelling on this, I needed to live and not fret myself to death before I even actually die.

I am dressed with my braids up and pinned. Never have I ever felt nervous meeting any royal, but Angelica is no simple royal, she is my mother in-law, who is married and mated to the current pain in my ass. Alexus knocks on the suite door before opening it, “Laina, my mother is in the drawing room, I thought it would be a good idea if we went down together.”

Alexus is just as anxious as I was, which is hilarious because it is her mother. As we approach the drawing room I could hear Charles and the queen talking in her native language. We enter the drawing room, giving Queen Alder a bow, she rose to her feet and hugs us both. “My beautiful daughter and my beautiful daughter in-law. We need no formalities; your father is not here with his insufferable edict.”

I look at her, she was stunning with her grey eyes, hazelnut rich skin and perfectly coiled hair. Just like most supernaturals we did not age physically with the exception of a few showing age close to the end of their life.

We all had some wine before dinner and talk in a relaxed manner. Angelica approved of her daughter’s mate as well as her son being mated to me. She is aware that a meeting tomorrow would finalize her daughter's choice. “My mate has to learn he cannot control things divined by the universe. When I met Richard he was conditioned in such patriarchal bullshit I considered severing our bond, despite that I loved him. Love isn’t always enough to make things work. He gave in to me in some ways and suppressed me in others. As decades past our children became adults and I no longer saw the need to keep the peace any longer. I live my life and he lives his.”

I had always suspected Angelica reverted back to her original independence once Edwin was an adult. It was my mate and his siblings that kept then together, other than that she was clearly unhappy with who her mate is. He never evolved and stayed rooted in the old ways that nearly destroyed our alliances in the human world.

“Elaina, do not allow my mate to drive a wedge between you and my son. Remind Nolan if necessary, who you are and what you two need to be by any means you see fit. I rather like that you can rile Richard up and put fear in him at the same time.” We all smile walking to the dining room to eat.

Angelica talked of the time she first met King Alder, both being full of love for each other while in Bolivia. They traveled extensively their first two years together, visiting shifter communities such as the were-tigers in Asia and other large cat shifters that resided in South America. “Things changed once we were summoned back to Canada, Richard was going to be crowned King Regent. His father and the Lycan council felt Richard needed to be further ‘groomed’ for his new role, which basically meant he was conditioned more to see me as an object and a trophy instead of his mate. My mate will try to do the same to Nolan. My son has already defied him since being a young pup, but these strenuous times have left Nolan vulnerable to his father’s subtle conditioning. Elaina, be better than me and cut the head of the beast off.”