Chapter 23

What truth?

Arthur was confused and narrowed his gaze at him in suspicion. Rex wasn’t usually cryptic. Maybe it was because Rex knew that Arthur still didn’t trust anyone and he needed his strength to defend Sharp Armor, but he didn’t care.

"Why are you being so cryptic?”

“It’s complicated.

“What do you mean?"

“I want to be sure,” Rex said. “But I’ll need you to come with me to verify it. When I’m sure, I’ll tell you everything.”

Arthur glared at him, “Why won’t you just tell me now? Why bring it up at all if you weren’t sure?”

Rex’s eyes widened, seemingly shocked and Arthur wasn’t sure what to do or say. He had expected defensiveness and anger, but Rex’s eyes just softened and seemed misty.

“Well,” Rex said. “That is one way of thinking about it… Will you come with me or not?”

It wasn’t an answer to his question, but the response had soothed the suspicion he’d begun to feel about it. Rex was acting weird, but he was curious about what the man could have to say.

“Fine. I’ll go.”

Arthur couldn’t imagine why a bunch of alphas wanted to meet in a castle several miles away from their villages, but he went with it. The gates were the first thing he saw as they walked up the steep hill. The gates were high and connected to a dark stone wall that wrapped around a piece of land. Water rushed at the bottom of the ravine beneath the craggy rocks around the castle. Arthur smelled the freshness of the forest and the fresh sea wind.

He’d never seen the sea before. As the castle began to rise from behind the gates, his heart stuttered. The stone was a pure white and seemed to glow in the sunlight. He could only imagine what it looked like in the moonlight. Reaching towards the sky, the castle felt majestic and noble, simply waiting for someone to take notice of its beauty.

On the tallest tower, a tattered flag fluttered like a testament of a battle.

“It’s beautiful…”

“It is,” Rex said, solemnly. “Once, the royal family ruled the whole werewolf kingdom from here. The forest around it is full of rogues now, but it used to be our territory.”

“What… happened?” Arthur asked.

He’d never heard anything about a royal family, let alone a kingdom beyond the little wisps of conversation back at Brown Valley.

“When the royal family fell, things changed. The kingdom’s land was divided between the alphas of several packs. Whatever an alpha could defend around the pack’s land belonged to that pack, and the wild forests were left for whoever or whatever lived there.”

Arthur frowned, listening to his wistful tone, “If you miss a unified werewolf kingdom, why don't you elect a new king?”

Rex stopped and looked at him, meeting his gaze. His eyes were so full of emotions that Arthur felt frozen in his gaze. He wondered if he had asked one of the kinds of questions Daphne would say he shouldn't.

“When the royal family still ruled, I was just a child, but I have heard a lot about the royalty. They were special, blessed by the moon goddess. An ordinary werewolf is no match for them... It is because of that power that they could subjugate all the packs and unify us.”

"So?"

Rex scoffed, “There are no wolves, or rather there were no wolves like that among us, and we know it. Electing a king would just bring war between packs and wouldn't serve us in the long run."

"Why?"

"Vying for power, alliances, resentments… the smaller packs would just really around the nearer smaller packs or worse…" Rex shook his head. "Besides, no one wants to step up to take that position because of all the responsibility. For most, it's easier to just protect what's theirs."

Arthur was skeptical. Royalty or not, it was strength that determined who would lead them. It seemed more like the alphas were just afraid to fight for the throne because they didn’t think they were strong enough to keep it.

Lucas scoffed, They aren’t.

Arthur couldn’t disagree. He’d always known that all the wolves that he’d met, including Rex, were weaker than him.

The only exception was the rogue, Owen, who called him his brother. Whatever that meant. He clenched his fist. Owen seemed to know him, and strangely enough, Arthur had the same vague feeling of familiarity about him. He had questions, but he also knew that Owen was too dangerous to go searching for on his own in the hope of answers.

He’d hoped he would run into Owen again while on patrol to maybe get some answers or, at least, defeat him, but he hadn’t even caught a whiff of Owen’s scent since he’d joined patrol.

He'd been almost convinced that Owen was gone until the rogues invaded Sharp Armor.

The castle gates were open and Arthur could see how well kept the inner courtyard was despite what Rex said about how long it had been since the royal family fell from power. Maybe the alphas of the area kept the castle intact over the years in remembrance of the fallen monarchs.

As they entered the castle, Arthur gasped in awe.

Gold-thread tapestries hung from the rafters depicting battles between wolves and other creatures. There was one with silver thread depicting the moon goddess and a wolf bearing a crown. The path they walked was lined with ornate lamps on the wall that were still burning as if werewolves still lived there, yet the castle was eerily quiet.

He heard a few people walking around nearby. Maybe some servants remained in the castle after their reign had ended, still serving the royal family even after they had disappeared.

A woman dressed modestly stopped in the hallway and stared at him, wide-eyed as she dropped the bucket she’d been carrying. Arthur averted his gaze, nervously and followed Rex down the hall.

Rex opened the door to a grand hall where a long table sat. There were already several alphas there.

“Alpha Rex!” One of them greeted, glancing at Arthur. “Glad you could make it! How is the border?”

“Well defended as always. You’re welcome.” The man chuckled as they shook hands. Sharp Armor was the only village on the border. Most of the other alphas owed Rex their safety. “Old Tom hasn’t arrived yet?”

“Not yet, should be here soon.”

Arthur frowned and looked at Rex, “Who is Old Tom?”

“He is the alpha of Golden Moon Pack,” Rex said. “He's the one I want you to meet.”

Rex gestured to seats near the end of the long table as more people began to arrive and greeted each other. Rex introduced him to nearly a dozen people, but the three biggest packs were Silver Armor, Golden Moon, and Milky River. They settled around the table, yet no one sat at the end where the golden chair stood, gleaming in the light streaming through the windows. Arthur supposed it had once been the king’s throne.

Diana, the alpha of the Milky River pack, was a brown-skinned woman with very defined muscles. She wasn’t exceedingly tall, but Arthur could tell she was strong.

She eyed Arthur with curiosity before asking Rex, “Who is this young man? Why didn't you bring Blade?”

“Rogues attacked our pack and poisoned our well. I left Blade to deal with mitigating the damage.”

Quiet filled the room for a moment before they all started to speak.

“Impossible! Rogues couldn’t do such a thing!”

“How could they have poisoned your pack?”

“They can do something like this now?”

“Rex, you have to be wrong!”

Arthur thought they were all ridiculous to be denying what Rex said. They sounded fearful and Lucas scoffed in annoyance.

They sounded weak.

“No,” Rex said gravely. “Our doctor did a check. They used wolfsbane.”

A little gasp of terror went through most of them.

“We’ve already lost one to the attack, and our infirmary is full of people suffering from the effects though they are being treated.”

The hall quieted. Their shouts were replaced with fearful murmuring. Diana was silent staring at the table with a resolute expression. Some people didn’t seem to care. If Arthur remembered correctly, they were of much smaller packs that were near to packs that weren’t experiencing any troubles.

They all seemed shocked and frightened, concerned eve, but none of them offer any help.

It reminded him a bit of the people of Brown Valley and Arthur snorted with laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

Arthur shook his head, leaning back in his seat. The door opened with the entrance of the last pack. Rex stood.

“Old Tom’s here.”

He was a short, sturdy old man with a white beard. Despite his age, everyone seemed to respect him. He walked around the table and greeted Diana, then Rex as he sat across from Arthur.

He lifted his face and gasped as he looked at Arthur. His eyes grew glossy.

Arthur frowned at him.

“Oh my…” He leaned forward. “By the goddess…”

“What?” Diana asked.

“Your Majesty!”