Alpha’s Second Choice

Power

Whoever possessed it had the upper hand in any situation. Perhaps, Jo would have been considered powerful in her land but in the werewolf world, she was a measly omega.

The last few days were rough on the poor siren. Losing countless nights of sleep finally drove her to the edge. She was usually very calculative and methodical in everything she did but her actions at the temple were rather erratic.

She reflected on her actions near the temple. The sight of the guard touching her friend triggered something in her, it brought a very violent side of her. She thought she would never retort to this side of her again but it came back and it was ugly.

Of course, the guard got what he deserved and Jo highly doubted that the queen also had a hand in this. Forcing her to attend long ceremonies, temple blessings, making her stand in queues for hours and making her perform unreasonable tasks in the last few days, the list was inexhaustible. It was as if Olivia wanted to crack Jo and she was successful this time.

The trial went quite as she had expected. Everything was framed against her and the court refused to accept her friends as witnesses. To top it all off, the queen ordered her execution later in the afternoon.  

Well, damn her luck.

Jo did not want to remove her scent again to use her powers. The memories of the spear missing her by bare inches haunted her again. Jo now knew she had more than one enemy and could not let her guards down.

The siren could hear muffled ruckus from outside. She would soon be taken out to be publicly executed. She knew she had to unleash her power or it would be impossible to escape hundreds of royal guards and even the generals that would be present there.

‘I am sorry Rayleigh. I have to do this to protect myself’, she whispered to herself, calming her shaking hands and remembering her dear friend fondly.

‘Hey Jo’

Jo opened her eyes to find Don standing in front of her, only separated by the thick silver cell bars.

‘Hi there’

‘I am sorry you are in this cell right now. Nothing is making sense and this whole execution thing is moving too fast. I only heard about your rushed trial a few moments ago. It is shocking you were not given a defendant speaker. I would have been more than happy to step in and spoken on your behalf’, Don apologetically offered.

‘It’s okay. None of this is your fault, Don. I will be alright’, she reassured her worried friend.

‘Jo, the reason I was so busy these few days was because of the attack in the ball that happened few days ago. I was investigating the spear and interrogating the guards present at that time. I have my reasons to believe the spear attack was orchestrated by someone in the royal family. I could not find out who but all evidence points to someone amongst them’, Don finished brushing his hands through his brown wavy hands. He looked tired with more lines visible on his forehead frown making him look even more rougher than his causal self. 

‘I figured so’, she carefully thought. ‘But it does not matter, Don. I don’t think the queen looked keen on changing her verdict anytime soon’.

The sound of a horn blowing distracted the duo interrupting their conversation.

‘It’s time Jo. I won’t let anything happen to you’, Don hurriedly said as he stepped aside for the marching guards.

*

Jo was escorted to a mini platform that looked like it was assembled last moment. Some of the attendees in the crowd were booing as she passed them, making her roll her eyes at them. In the past, this reaction would have made her burst out crying.

But Jo had gone through so much in the past that she now had reached a certain level where everyone’s perception about her did not matter. The most important thing was what she thought of herself and she knew she did the right thing.

Not caring about the herd mentality was the best choice Jo had made in her life.

The siren ascended the tiny steps as she looked at the huge guard with an axe standing next to a small wooden slab.

The queen was watching this charade from a small veranda facing the podium. She was sitting in a comfortable small throne with her minions by her side. Jo had never seen the queen look this happy ever since their first encounter.

Jo tried searching her friends’ faces in the crowd but she was soon distracted by eggs and rotten fruits that were thrown at the podium. One of the eggs smashed across her forehead as the yolk dripped down on her eyelids. She wanted to wipe the dripping yolk away but her hands were still tightly clutched behind her back with hand cuffs.

Jo started shuddering from the smell of the rotten fruits that were hitting all possible inch of her body. Yet, she still kept her eyes open giving full eye contact to the people in the crowd. Some looked away feeling intimated. This made Jo laugh a little. Everyone felt invincible amongst the crowd but the moment they were left alone, they would cower. This is why nothing feared Jo anymore.

There was a very clear evil smirk playing on the queen’s smooth skin, how deceiving were her looks?

If Jo was not a siren, she would have never known. Deceitful looks were a trait her kind was proud of. They were the master of luring people and making everyone feel enchanted by them. It was highly likely Dante was also probably fooled by her innocent look.

Jo’s thoughts went back to Evelyn’s letter. The words saddening her more. What if they were true?

‘Let her go pwetty pleasu. She is not bad’, the princess’s voice brought Jo’s attention back to reality.

‘Evelyn, stand back’, Jo warned the little princess who was trying to get on the small podium she was being held on.

Olivia annoyedly waved her hand at one of the guards who roughly manhandled the princess and removed her swiftly from the scene.

‘Hey, be careful with her. She is just a child’, she yelled but her voice was soon drowned by the crowd’s booing.

‘The princess is known to be quite a prankster’

‘Our queen is disciplining her’

‘She is mentally ill’

Multiple reasonings were thrown at the clueless siren. It just dawned on her. Everyone in the kingdom was completely brainwashed by Olivia. The unsuspecting perfect queen.

‘Proceed with the execution’, the order came from the small veranda. Jo was not sure if it was from Olivia or one of her minions speaking as she was roughly forced to lay down on the wooden platform and position her head on the slab.

 Her heart started beating faster, she did not like unmasking her true scent randomly time and again especially with Belial’s scent and presence close by.

Jo concentrated her powers on her fingertips, she had to make a run for it.

Before the siren could free herself, a large growl rippled through the crowd.

‘STOP RIGHT THIS INSTANCE’

There it was again. The calming presence of her mate. So strong that it made her lose focus of her powers that were dancing on her fingertips. As much as she hated to admit it, she knew she was safe as long as he was around.

‘What is the meaning of this?’, Dante gently helped Jo off the cold wooden floor, breaking the hand cuffs with his right hand.

‘My king, she-she attacked a royal guard. Our queen ordered a public execution for her’, the huge guard standing on the podium replied dropping the axe he was using to intimidate Jo just a while ago.

‘Bring the guard in question here. NOW’, Dante let out another growl. Their king was not happy and it was a rare sight for his people.

As they waited, Jo looked at Dante’s hand. She realised they were holding hands, right in front of everyone.

The siren already knew what the queen’s reaction would be, so she dared not look in the direction of the small veranda.

‘My king, this is the royal guard who was attacked. His name is Vince-‘

‘I already know his name. You think you need to introduce my own men to me?’, Dante asked angrily throwing deadly glares at Vince and squaring the guard up.

The white robed elderly man shivered under the king’s gaze, ‘I apologise, your majesty’.

‘Jo, tell me what happened?’, Dante darted his eyes back to her. The moment their eyes locked, Dante’s face softened as if he was calming down just by watching her.

‘This guard here, Vince or whoever pulled me and my friends away from the queue to the temple. He started inappropriately touching my friend, so I grabbed the closest weapon and used it against him’, Jo replied without blinking her eyes. ‘Why? Did I do something wrong?’.

‘Yes’, Dante answered making Jo’s heart sink a little.

Within a spilt second, Dante was behind Vince and without any forewarning, the king snapped the unsuspecting guard’s neck.

There was a moment of silence to process the bizarre event that was unfolding in front of everyone.

‘You should have killed him instead’, the silence was finally broken by the king himself. ‘Vince was already on his last warning after being accused of inappropriate harassment multiple times before. This was his final chance to amend his actions’.

‘MY KING’, Olivia shouted loudly from the veranda, almost shrieking her voice. ‘You should have at least given him a chance to speak before killing him. Why did you trust that omega so easily?’.

‘Jo was telling me the truth because her voice did not waiver a single bit’, Dante looked at Jo, completely oblivious of the big guard’s lifeless dead body on the podium. ‘Or else, I would have felt it through our bond’.

Echoes her past memories came magically dancing in front of Jo’s bare eyes, she recollected her past friend Rayleigh’s words, ‘Someone besides me will believe you one day’. The little creature had promised her that. She used to laugh it off as a joke. But here she was standing before her mate who believed her so easily, without a single doubt.

Was believing someone always this easy?

Something changed in Jo the moment Dante looked back at her, his fiery eyes glowing warmly. At that instant, she believed Evelyn’s letter readily.

She wanted to save Dante

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She needed to save her mate.