The Alpha King (Kingdom of Askara #1)(35)

He crossed the clearing with Sam and Gabriel and paused as he felt them both stiffen, and he looked up. There was a crowd of humans waiting at the pack entrance. Well, women and children certainly. Iris was pleading with them to have patience as Luca was busy.

“I am here now,” Luca raised his voice and the crowd of women fell silent. He noticed Josiah, the slave who had prompted him to instigate the rules about children under ten working. The boy looked even more miserable than last week though, if that was possible. Luca frowned. “What seems to be the problem?”

One of the human women took a step forward and Sam immediately moved quickly in front of Luca. Luca firmly took hold of Sam’s arm and with a dry look moved him to one side.

He looked at the woman. “Do you speak for the group?”

She nodded, as did the others.

Luca gestured to the pack house. “Then let us all go inside and speak.”

The women gaped at the offer. To be invited inside like a guest was clearly not something they were used to. Luca silently went into the empty great room and asked a servant, who had just appeared, to serve refreshments. Juice for the children appeared in minutes.

“Now, how can I help?”

The woman with Josiah swallowed nervously, but spoke. “Your Highness, it’s about the child labor law you made.”

Luca frowned. “Did you want me to raise the minimum age? I realize ten is still young, but—”

“Sire, we need you to abolish it,” the woman interrupted, and rushed on before Luca could say a word. “Josiah here is my late sister’s child. I lost my husband as well last year and I have two children under five myself. I also have my mother who is too sick to work.”

Luca nodded. He was sympathetic, but he still didn’t understand. Josiah didn’t earn wages. It wasn’t like he was depriving the woman of income.

“I cannot afford another mouth to feed, Sire. At least when he was working he had food and a place to sleep. I share living with three other families. I have one room for us and no spare food.”

Luca gaped. A place to sleep? A stone floor with barely enough food to keep him alive. And Josiah was skin and bone. Luca opened and then immediately closed his mouth as understanding dawned. He hadn’t helped this child and family at all. If anything, he had made the problem worse. He didn’t know what to say, and looked at Sam helplessly. Luca knew that living arrangements were bad for the unlicensed humans. But Josiah’s family had papers. He burned in shame to know this was going on under his nose and he was unaware. Where did he start?

“My Alpha’s next task is to review all the living arrangements for his pack.” Luca turned his head sharply as Kit spoke up. He stood next to Taheesha, with Asher at his back; Luca hadn’t even realized he was in the room. “We are aware that there are a lot of families in difficulty and as of tomorrow, and every day, all underage children and those too sick to work are to appear at the pack house at twelve for a midday meal. If there are any like your mother who are too sick to leave their homes, then I need their names so food can be sent.”

Everyone was silent, astonishment written all over their faces. “That is incredibly generous, omega,” the woman said slowly as if she could hardly believe her ears.

Kit smiled. “I would love to take credit for it, but your King has been planning this for the last few days. He is glad you saved him the trouble of getting you all together to make an announcement.”

Luca was more astonished that no one called Kit out on such a blatant lie. “And all packs in this territory are subject to the same rules that I instigate here,” Luca confirmed. “I am also changing the law about unlicensed humans being able to work. I expect any with a job to receive a wage as any other.”

Complete silence fell over the room. Luca grinned. It was nice to silence people by saying something good for a change. The women were stunned, but they stared at each other with huge smiles, every one of them thanking Luca over and over. The refreshments were quickly finished and the crowd left as quickly as it had appeared.

“I am sorry. I should have asked,” Kit said quietly, standing in front of Luca when the last woman had left. “It was—”

“A master stroke,” Luca interrupted firmly, “but you shouldn’t have given me the credit for it.”

“It was the least I could do after offering something that wasn’t mine.” Kit smiled shyly.

Luca opened his mouth to disagree. Everything he had belonged to Kit also.

“Luca?”

They both turned. It was Luca’s mother. Luca sensed the subtle stiffening in his mate but his face never changed. “Mother,” Luca acknowledged.

She ignored Kit even though Luca stood with his arm around him. Adrienne pouted and opened her arms. Luca had no choice but to let Kit go and step forward to greet her. Adrienne immediately pulled him around. “Now, we have much to plan. The choosing is tomorrow, and it’s unfair of you to make Tara wait when she has an Alpha-heir waiting for her.

Luca shot an agonized glance at Kit. He stepped back. Kit immediately interrupted. “If you would both excuse me, I need to go speak to someone on the kitchen staff about the practicalities of feeding everyone.”

“Sire, you wanted to discuss something with me?” It was Tara who spoke.

Luca saw Kit’s head snap up. Luca sighed as Kit nearly ran in his hurry to leave the room. He would rather cut out his own heart than to hurt Kit’s, but it looked like he was going to do it again anyway.