Alpha King Xavier - Chapter 87: Chapter 87

For no reason didn't move away. Or maybe I simply wanted to see how it would end.
“Alpha Xavier!” A familiar voice called suddenly, making Xavier stop just before his lips would touch mine.
We both turned towards the speaker. It was Rick.
Good grief!
Rick looked worried. “Are you guys alright?”
Xavier nodded once. “The plan continues. You can get Brown to take her to the field. I need to hurry back to my ground.”
“Yes, you need to!” Rick supported and stretched out a bag to him.
Xavier nodded once and took the bag. Then he started to walk away.
Rick turned to look at me. “I will get Brown so you can move as well.”
I shook my head briefly. "No, please, let me follow you.”
“We will strictly follow the Alpha's order,” he muttered in a thick, harsh voice before he turned away.
“I can help you!” I said quickly before he would take a step forward. “I'm in this with you, am I not?”
Rick hesitated, as if thinking about it. When he turned to look at me again, he had this dark frown on his face.
“Are you really with us?” he asked in a chilly voice.
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Why don't you tell me?” he attacked. “Tell me if you are really in this with us because it seemed to me that you are not.”
I know what he's talking about. Rick has always doubted me anyway. And he has been very straightforward. He's always thinking I'm up to something. But then, I still have to pretend I have no idea what he is talking about.
I regarded him for a moment. “What are you really talking about because I'm really in the dark?”
"You," he started but stopped almost immediately. He looked away and clenched his teeth as if he were struggling with the words to say. “Fine then, you can follow us, but you have to be very swift, and you have to help out as well,” he said softly, the dark frown gone already. Though he wasn't smiling now. His face did something in between.
I nodded quickly, happy about his decision. “But are we really searching Augustine?”
Rick nodded once, and we started walking away. “And we have to do this within an hour. That's when the hunt festival will end. When it ends, people might want to return to their respective homes before the feast starts,” he explained.
I nodded once, and we walked out to several soldiers standing guard and waiting for Rick’s order.
Brown walked to us. He bowed slightly before me before he turned to look at Rick. Apparently, he doesn't know I'm not Gwen.
“We are ready to move.”
“Good, you and the six men should search Augustine; I will search Philip,” Rick indicated.
Brown nodded once and started to walk away.
“I'm going with you,” I said quickly.
It's safer to be with someone that knows me.
Rick nodded once and moved closer to the other men.
I watched them talk for a moment before we set out.
“He's not always like this,” Rick said suddenly.
I looked at him with raised brows. “What?”
He released a sigh. “Let me tell you a story before we arrive at our location. I mean, it wouldn't hurt. We can keep ourselves busy with that, can't we?”
I nodded several times. “It won't hurt,” I agreed.
He hesitated briefly. “He was seven when his father set him up to be strong. We've been friends since then. We were inseparatable,” he smiled softly. “He was a soft boy with a kind heart.”
Something tells me this story is about Xavier.
“But he couldn't keep up. He was very weak, and it angered his father. He wanted a strong heir, but the boy was nothing like that. And to even think no other child was forthcoming made everything worse.”
I felt his eyes on me for a moment. “Xavier didn't want to take over the pack. He just wanted to work on the farms.”
I scoffed. “The Xavier I know rules the pack as if he was born to do so.”
“Will you at least let me finish my story?” He said softly.
I nodded once, then twice. “Alright.”
“He was locked up.”
What!
“Who dares lock up a seven-year-old boy?” I was suddenly intrigued.
“Stephen, that's the name of his father. He was very callous. He simply wanted his son to be like him,” he explained.
Then, I remember what my father had said concerning Stephen. Stephen changed, and he became wicked while he sought more power.
“Xavier's mother planned his release. She told Xavier to leave and never come back. Unknowingly that she was going to die that day.”
“What happened?”
“Stephen killed her.”
“What!”
I was gobsmacked.
Rick scoffed and looked away. “Stephen killed Xavier's mother. He begged the moon goddess to return her, but that didn't happen. Well, he was just seven then. He had nowhere to go and came to my father's house. He was all tattered that day and hadn't eaten for a day.”
I can't believe all I'm hearing.
“How then is he leading the pack now?”
He sighed. “They came one day. They stormed our house. My father told Xavier to run away, thinking they would let us go when they couldn't find Xavier. Instead, Stephen had another plan for us.”
“Yes_” I was curious.
“We were to be killed if Xavier didn't show up. He gave him three days.”
I gasped. What!
“Actually, I thought it was over for us. I was just six then, and well, my sister hasn't been born,” he said, half smiling.
“I mean, Xavier was supposed to have left the border. So, there was no way he would even know something was up with us.”
How was he supposed to survive alone? A seven-year-old boy?
“He came, didn't he?”
Rick nodded once. “He came on the last day and promised to do whatever his father wanted if he could let us go. Stephen starved Xavier for days. He was just a little boy, and he didn't deserve it. He sincerely didn't,” his voice suddenly faded.
Maybe I might have taken my family for granted, especially those days that I realised how helpless I was. But I won't even know how much others crave for it—to have a family that loves them.
In Xavier's case, only his mother did, but she was killed at a time when he needed her the most.
“Xavier killed someone at the age of nine. Actually, he was traumatised for some weeks, but then Stephen wasn't done. When Xavier shifted at the age of 16, he wasn't only strong; he was powerful. He had a strong wolf anyway,” he explained.
Then it came at me.
“Did he kill his father?”
Rick shook his head briefly. “Even though he hated him. He couldn't bring himself to kill him. He took the pack from him and decided to rule it however he decided.”
Xavier's life isn't all a bed of roses, actually.
“But that doesn't give him the right to treat everyone like his father.”
Rick looked away. “Xavier has always lived in denial and struggles. He always had nightmares every night. He's not healed.”
Then realisation dawned on me. Was that why he didn't want to hear anything that has to do with the moon goddess? He didn't only express his hatred to his father but to the moon goddess as well.
“He doesn't deserve any of this. He doesn't deserve to be treated like this. He needs all the love he can get. I mean, he has made mistakes, but what do you expect from someone that was trained to be callous?”
I had no answers to the question. But then, I couldn't stop thinking about the stories—the one my father told me and this one.
I still can't believe Xavier went through all that Rick said he went through, but it wouldn't have been lies.
My father told me Stephen changed. And then he was poisoned by the witch poison. It was also the poison that was used on Xavier and also on the woman that attacked me earlier.
It merely looked like the whole war had started even before Xavier came on the throne. No, it started before Xavier even clocked 16. It was when the prophecy came out.
“When did Xavier's father die?”
Rick looked at me, shocked for a moment. “What?”
“Can you think about it?”
“When Xavier was 17,” he revealed.
“And all the Alphas by the left side were threatened to be under Xavier, right?”
Confusion marred Rick’s face, but he nodded nonetheless.
Good.
“But were there any packs that Xavier's father forced under him out of the packs on the left side? Perhaps there was an encounter?”
Rick thought for a moment. “None. Xavier forced_” he stopped almost immediately. “No, Augustine used to be under Xavier's father.”
What?
“He surrendered then. It was how Xavier got close to him. Xavier was just thirteen when he fought with Stephen. No one knew what the issue was all about. Augustine left, but Xavier convinced him to come back after he became the Alpha. So, we can't really say he was forced like the rest,” he explained.
“But then he was forced by his father.”
Rick stared, more confused. “What is wrong?”
Why didn't I think in that direction though? That Augustine knew we were coming? He was the man we have been looking for.
Augustine must have been relying on the prophecy. No, he was working towards it.
Suddenly, a loud, sad howl sounded around us.
I looked up at Rick. “We were a step behind.”
Why would they want the kiss so bad, yet not kiss? It will rain money tomorrow if you can vote on this chapter... smile