The King's Wife Is The Alpha's Mate

"You won't get away from dragging our names through the mud, you stupid bitch!" Lucia threw another stone at Sophie and was irritated to find her dodge them all agilely. It was true that somehow, Sophie was always better when it came to sports and could outrun them.

"I don't want to do anything with you guys anymore so leave me be." Sophie started walking away from them. If she reached the castle of Duke Romanov, she was sure that they would at least stop.

However, this time, Lucia was so furious that she didn't back down at all. "Don't think you can run away from me. Where are you holed up to now? Some random cave or tree here in Hastings?"

There weren't even any caves in Hastings at all, but Sophie only chose to walk away from them even as the two women continued to chase after her and throw slurs and other derogatory words at her.

Along the way to Duke Romanov's castle was a nearby river that flowed out from the small forest that stretched all the way across the road. Sophie was walking along the side of it when she suddenly found herself getting pushed.

Lucia had gotten so frustrated at the lack of response from Sophie that she decided to just push her into the river.

Sophie didn't expect Lucia to go this far and she stumbled into the waters and without any proper footing and finding the river to be extremely deep, the cold and sudden rush of the water started to make the woman drown.

Back on the riverbed, Lucia stared at Sophie drowning and then quickly seized Valerie's hand.

"Let's run!" she shouted at her sister.

The two young women started running away at the same time that Duncan finally traced Sophie back outside of Hastings.

Duncan's eyes widened and he rushed towards the river, ignoring the women as he dove into the waters and saved Sophie. Max followed him closely. Duncan immediately brought Sophie back to the ground and found himself worried beyond relief as he didn't know what to do to Sophie.

He tried to help her cough up the water. Sophie sputtered out and choked out some of the water that had entered her body earlier. She looked up and saw Duncan's face, someone who seemed familiar enough because she had seen him before.

Either way, Sophie immediately blacked out after the incident and Duncan quickly rushed to the castle. It was barely in good time because he already saw that Leland was arriving via carriage so when Duncan placed Sophie into bed, she was still shaking and shivering.

"Ah, what do I do? The Alpha's going to kill me." Duncan genuinely feared for his life and started to grab for Sophie's clothes but quickly withdrew back. Touching Sophie also equaled death.

Dinah pushed the lycan away and hurriedly shoved him out of the room. "Alpha Leland is coming back today. Ufff… I'll take care of her, just try to distract the Alpha while I change her clothes. She's going to get a fever at this rate, humans are so weak."

***

After he reached Wolfstone Castle, Leland's first matter of destination was always visiting Sophie and checking on how she was. He wanted to see if she had adjusted herself well to the life in his castle.

However, what the Alpha encountered was Duncan coming towards him. The lycan did not have any shirt on and also had soggy pants. Leland immediately glared at him. "Did you decide to go for a swim?"

"Uh, no Alpha… I mean yes, Sophie fell into the river!" Duncan admitted aloud. "So, I dove in to rescue her and—"

Before the lycan could even finish his sentence, Leland already threw the man aside and burst through the hallway. He rushed towards Sophie's room and when he opened the door, he found Sophie lying in bed and swaddled in blankets.

Dinah had just been collecting Sophie's soggy clothes and then immediately bowed to Leland. "Alpha—"

"Leave."

Without another word, Dinah would quickly flee from Sophie's room and give the man privacy with Sophie. The female lycan didn't want to risk experiencing the wrath of the Alpha and the powerful aura of the man was already leaking when he came.

Leland's anger coursed through him at the incident. But then his anger slowed and changed to concern when he stepped forward to see the woman resting in her bed.

"Hah… I should have known better." Leland cursed himself as he watched the woman's pale blue lips. He clenched his fist in anger and wanted to go out and throw Duncan across the walls of the castle.

He intentionally assigned Duncan and Max to keep an eye on Sophie because his mark on her had vanished and he couldn't protect her anymore while he was away.

The last time, when Sophie faced back her cousins and their school friends, she could borrow Leland's strength because of the mark he put on her.

This time she was on her own because Leland couldn't mark her again. She would be suspicious. He already had gone beyond the boundaries by already placing it on her without any approval whatsoever.

So, Leland's only way was to provide protection in the form of the two lycans, which obviously couldn't do their job properly.

Uff…

It was obvious that a shock had gone through her entire system when she fell into the river. Despite the fact that she was half a lycan, she still experienced a bad effect when she fell into the waters and that pained the Alpha.

When he remembered Anne, the fierce warrior, the only descendant of King Malachi, Leland could only massage his head. Why did Sophie take after her father so much? Humans were so weak compared to their tribe.

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From Missrealitybites:

I would like to explain a little bit about my werewolf lore since there are many different ones out there. So, the ones I have in this book are as follows:

1. Lycans can choose their mates and whoever they end up with is their destined mate. I don't like the idea that their mates are chosen for them randomly and they don't have a say in the matter.

2. Most lycans only mate once for life, but they can have a second chance mate if their first mate bond doesn't work out (their mate died or their mate reject them).

3. Only purebred (born as werewolves) understand how to live properly as lycans. For example, Nicholas is turned, he is not purebred, so he doesn't understand how mate bond works, he doesn't know how to mark his partner, he is not able to take advantage of many things exclusive to the lycans.

4. Lycans can crossbreed with other species, like humans (or, in other stories, you could see them mate with vampires, faes, etc), and their offspring will take after one or both parents' characteristics.

5. Specific for lycans, when they have the mate bond established with their mate, they could share their strength, their feelings, and their minds with each other. They have the closest and unbreakable bond with their mate.

However, one side could block these feelings and strength sharing if they want to. Just like Leon, Leland's father, who married his wife for convenience, not for love. He put up walls so she couldn't have his heart. He, however, remained loyal to her as her mate.