1. Silence

Silence. The hallways of the castle were filled with silence, the only disturbance coming from the chamber at the far end of the eastern wing as brother and sister argued loudly, “Come on DJ”, the petite female whined, her brown locks bouncing as she spoke to her brother who laid lazily on his king sized bed,

“No Desiree”, he said to his younger sister, “I am not giving you any of my sweaters”, he stood up, letting his tall frame tower over her, he went to his wardrobe door and locked it, securing his clothes from her prying hands,

“Why not?”, she placed a frown on her face, maybe she could guilt trip him into giving her what she wanted,

“How could you ask that? Because of you, my wardrobe is almost empty of house wears. You shop a lot, why not just shop for clothes that are five times your size?”, he reasoned with her.

She let out a gasp, “I can not do that and you know it”,

“Well, you can not take another one of my sweaters”, he pounced back on his bed and pretended to ignore her as she threw her raging fit, completely exaggerating the situation. One knock on the door had her back straightened up and his complete attention, “Come in”, his voice was an octave higher as he prayed it was not who he thought he was.

The door opened and the siblings let out sigh of relief as the familiar young adult came into view, he looked nervous to say the least- like he had seen a ghost, “What the fuck happened to you?”, the argument long gone, the girl slumped onto the couch and folded her slim leg across the other,

“Your father-”, their relaxed demeanor changed, their backs became rigid,

“What about him?”, the other man’s radiant purple eyes glistened with slight fear,

“He said you should keep your noise down, he was not that kind with his words though”, he sat down on the couch across from the girl, “Oh, he also said I should bring you both the throne room. A meeting is about to start, also why I am here with my father and mother”.

“So, you know you have been a prodigal best friend lately?”, DJ pushed himself off the bed and walked towards the guy on the couch, he gave him a playful punch,

“Dude”, he whined as he rubbed his elbow, “What have you been eating, rocks?”,

“My father wishes”, DJ rolled his eyes, “He made me train throughout our break”,

“Same here, hence my prodigal behavior. I have been training all through the summer, my dad got scarier during this short period of time”, the guy shuddered slightly as he recalled his whole summer break, it had started like any other summer with loads of free time on his hands- well, that was until the Alpha king decided that he wanted to retire and not wait for death like other kings.

“At least, you didn’t have to endure an electric chair shooting five thousand volts up your body”, he remembered his father saying that it was normal ‘Alpha King’ training, he had to endure it even though he was tempted to run and hide, not that he would have made it past the dungeon doors as guards were littered all around the place to make sure he did not get too far even if he did bolt.

“As much as I would love to hear how your summers went, let us try to remember that the alpha king is calling us”, Desiree reminded, standing up from the couch she had been sitting on,

“What about you princess? How did you spend the summer?”, the guy sitting on the couch also stood up and stretched out his limbs, he was secretly trying to hide the blush that was crawling up his cheeks from talking to his childhood crush.

“Well, Alec, I could say your summer was way more eventful than mine”, she placed a genuine smile on her face, one that was different from her usual evil smirk or sarcastic grin,

“Mom made her take a cooking class”, she shot a glare at her loose-mouthed brother who had promised not to share this little secret with anyone, “What? It’s just Alec”, he shrugged and made his way to the door, the other two following closely behind him.

“I call dibs on dad’s left side”, even though being on their father’s left side during meetings was his rightful place, he had no qualms with letting his younger sister sit down beside their cranky father, after the summer he had had, he believed it was best for the both of them to stay apart for a while, even if it was just a day,

“Whatever Desiree”, everyone knew that he preferred his mother to his father, he loved her more and it was very obvious, ever since he was little, he was always a mummy’s boy, maybe it had something to do with the fact that his father was absent for the first few months of his life and he was more familiar with his mother. Even after twenty years , he believed that he could count on his mother more that he could with his father, Desiree on the other hand was a daddy’s girl, she took after him with almost everything; attitude and character, she preferred her father, no doubt.

The doors flew open and the trio walked into the hall full of alphas, lunas and betas, their eyes immediately darted to their parents who sat above the other people in the large hall. Beady purple eyes stared at them intently, scolding them for arriving late to a meeting and keeping everyone, they bowed their heads in respect and made their way up, Desiree skipping happily towards her father while DJ sat down quietly with his mother.

The beautiful middle-aged woman placed a smile on her lips as she welcomed her two children, her hand was secured on her mate’s lap to ease his anger, he disliked tardiness, it was a common source of his anger and they knew it- she knew it as well but she was not in the mood to stop another one of his man tantrums.

“Staring at them like that would not do any good”, she reasoned with him in a hushed tone, “Why not start the meeting”, she gave him a quick peck on his cheek for motivation and his scowl turned into a smile,

“You might be wondering why I called all of you here”, he spoke into the microphone, “I would soon retire, maybe later than soon but I have chosen to retire”, gasps filled the hall as all the people were shocked at the news, Alpha King Edwards was retiring? It was surprising, they were expecting him to rule till death, after all, it was very obvious that the never aging alpha king had started aging normally. “Do not be surprised, I have spent over two hundred and fifty years on this throne, but now, I have a successor”, DJ was uninterested until he heard the words ‘successor’, “My first and only son, Alpha Prince Dwayne Edwards the second”, he signaled for him to stand up and he did, feet a bit shaky as this was the first time that he had ever faced a crowd head on. He knew this day was bound to come one day but his father never taught him this part of being the alpha king, he was always so focused on the physical aspect that he completely overlooked the intellectual aspect.

He watched as the other werewolves stood up from their seats and bowed to him, the heftiness of his future job crashing down on him suddenly, he was meant to rule and take care of all these people, thousands and thousands of people would look up to him very soon. His palms became sweaty, he had never felt so humiliated in his life, how could his father do this to him? A simple heads up would have been appreciated, he would have practiced a speech instead of looking like a deer caught in headlights.

He almost pissed himself when he felt a hand on his wrist, “Don’t be nervous DJ, you are fine”, after hearing his mother’s words of encouragement, he relaxed and took in a deep breath- he was relaxed and ready until a stern voice erupted in his head,

‘Do not embarrass or disappoint me son’.