The Alpha King (Kingdom of Askara #1)(3)
“Ladies and gentleman, Alpha-heirs. May the light of Sorin shine among you!” Everyone sat up and turned their attention to Mickela, the old grand-beta. The man was swathed in the old-fashioned white robes that indicated his position and draped in the gold that indicated the territory’s wealth. Or rather, thought Luca, the wealth of Alpha Hendrick, because he certainly didn’t share it with the rest of the packs. “Summon the omegas!”
Luca turned fatalistically towards the huge oak doors of Hendrick’s pack house as they swung open. This was the choosing. The day all the Alpha-heirs that had reached their twenty-fifth year got to choose their life-mate. No Alphas ever came into their Alpha power until it was summoned by the omega they mated. Luca watched as four servants each carried out the gilded chairs the omegas lounged on. They reminded Luca of his mother’s house cats. Spoiled, pampered pets, each languishing on velvet cushions. One or two looked eager, but most looked as condescending as the elders who ruled the ceremony. Sam screwed his face up as he watched the procession come past. “On second thoughts, have another one,” Sam said dryly and put his hand up to summon a servant to fill their goblets. He looked distastefully as the omegas paraded past and turned to Luca. “That’s the best they can do?”
Luca was going to get drunk and then hopefully someone else would chose his omega for him and he would wake up when it was all over, including the mating.
There were only two males of the six omegas carried forward in the procession. Luca’s heart sank. It was bad enough he had to mate someone he had never met, but even worse if his omega was female. He had the fifth choice, in order of precedence. The first four went to the Alpha-heirs of larger packs than his, and he knew the ones from at least two of those packs would pick one of the three most powerful omegas available—and two of those were the only males. Luca was a strong wolf, but no different from other wolves until he gained whatever ability was gifted to him by his omega. He had no choice though, he couldn’t become Alpha without an omega, and he couldn’t wait even one more day without starting to right the wrongs that the elders allowed in his pack. They had been left to rule without fear of consequence for ten years, and as Alpha-heir only, Luca had no power or authority to change anything.
Iris didn’t have another day. She was depending on him and he couldn’t let her down. He glanced over to where the female wolves were sitting, almost hidden from sight. His sisters, being unmated, weren’t allowed to leave their own pack house, and for once Luca was glad they weren’t here to witness his humiliation. Iris and Taheesha had been promised to two gammas. That, in itself, wasn’t unusual, except both gammas were drunken slobs, the youngest being forty-three. Iris was seventeen, and would mate tomorrow. Taheesha was thirteen and would get to wait another four years. All he had managed to do was get the wedding postponed until tomorrow as he had been able to convince Hendrick and the elders he wanted Iris’s wedding to be his first official task after he became Alpha. They didn’t know the weddings wouldn’t happen at all. They also didn’t know his actual first official task as Alpha would be getting rid of his council of elders. He couldn’t wait, but unfortunately he had to go through this first.
It helped him pass the time now, at least, to think about what he was going to do. For instance, the abominations. There were many that ran unchecked in their world that as a mere pack Alpha he likely could do nothing about, but there were also some changes he intended to make immediately. No more human slaves in his pack for starters. There were two types of humans in Askara—licensed and unlicensed. Humans bred much easier and more prolific than their wolf masters, and in an attempt to keep the population controlled no humans were allowed to breed without a license. Wolves were simply terrified that sheer human numbers would defeat their wolf masters. Farmers, for example, would be allowed to have up to three children depending on the size of the Alpha’s lands they worked. Despite the licenses, though, it happened, and the humans born without a license were never given papers. No papers meant they could get no paying job or apprenticeship. In an original effort to appear merciful, the Alphas took in the unlicensed humans to perform subservient tasks. These humans were slaves. They had no rights or expectation of any, and were treated worse than the animals they often tended. At least the human servants, even though their treatment was not much better, got a wage. His sister’s wedding was a small thing in comparison, but a good place to start.
It was like this not just in Luca’s territory, but in the whole known world. Askara was a beautiful land and home to the five territories—Niandes, Tethra, Solonara, Perse, and his own Caedra. Each territory had between eight and twelve packs but Luca’s own pack was the only one in Caedra ruled by a group of elders instead of an Alpha. Each Alpha took a seat on the council that governed their territory, and because his pack didn’t have an Alpha to represent them, they always got the worst of everything. The worst hunting areas, the worst areas to farm, and as a result they had nothing to bargain with the other packs for. The ruling council ate and drank most of what was produced, and the rest of Luca’s people were left to scrabble for dregs.
Werewolves had become like this because they were afraid of humans ruling and destroying the world again. The legend of their race went that thousands of years ago humans ruled their world, and werewolves were merely beasts allowed to perform subservient tasks for their masters. The humans fought war after war with each other until eventually their world was nearly destroyed. The werewolves rose up at that point and took over. The coup was brief and bloody, and from that day forward humans were no longer able to destroy the world they lived in.