Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder-Chapter 1676 - 118 : A Balancing Act of Duties

*Kryzen*

“Make sure you eat more vegetables today,” I told Briella as I got ready for the day.

My wife just rolled her eyes from her spot on the bed. “I’ve never had a problem eating vegetables,” she told me.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’m aware of that,” I said. “But the healer said you should be having an extra serving of greens since your bloodwork was showing you haven’t been getting enough.”

Briella huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s not my fault that my body decided to betray me,” she snapped.

I just grinned and kissed her forehead, right on the little wrinkle between her eyebrows that appeared when she was frustrated.

It had only been a day since we returned home from our honeymoon, and she was already looking a lot better. The fact that she was giving me an attitude showed that she was feeling much better too, but I wasn’t going to take any chances where her health was concerned. She would complete the recommended couple of days on bed rest despite her improvement.

After making sure that Briella had everything she needed to stay in bed, like water and a few good books, I left the room to start my duties for the day.

Because my father was a general, I never thought I would have a standing much higher than that. I never even expected to be the Alpha of a pack, let alone a king who ruled over multiple packs. I definitely couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around the plethora of duties I would someday take on as my own.

Briella and I were both blessed with quite a few mentors. In addition to King Rhys taking time out of his busy schedule to come and counsel me, I had a bunch of other individuals lend me their expertise and advice, such as the head priest of Celestial Valley, Mathias, and Briella’s father, and my father-in-law, Alpha Noah of Drogomor.

They each had extremely different pieces of wisdom to offer me. Alpha Noah warned me to remain vigilant and on guard, making sure security was tight and up to par. I had a feeling a lot of that had to do with the fact that his only daughter was under my care, but it was good advice I had already started to implement throughout the kingdom.

I drew in a breath as I entered the large meeting room. It looked like everyone else had already gathered, and I was the last to arrive. The leaders of our neighboring packs stood when I entered, bowing respectfully as I crossed the room to take my seat at the head of the table.

“Good morning, Your Majesty,” Mathias greeted before lifting his head. “I trust that Queen Briella is recovering nicely from her illness?”

I nodded. “She is doing much better,” I said, smiling slightly at the old priest, knowing full well that Briella was essentially family to him. “I’m sure she would love a visit from you once we are finished here.”

Briella and I had agreed to announce her pregnancy soon, aside from close friends and family. I had no doubt she would like to tell Mathias privately.

Mathias smiled in thanks, and then the meeting began. It was a long but necessary one about border patrols and defense. After the battle against Tian’s dark army, I was adamant about each pack making serious moves toward establishing their own defense systems, with our aid, of course, if necessary.

“We have built several watch towers around our borders in the past several weeks,” Alpha Azure from Astral Haven informed me. “We are planning to have at least one man at each one.”

“Good,” I said with a nod. “Watch towers will prove especially useful for your community due to the nature of your terrain.”

Astral Haven was built into a cliffside, causing the community to be vulnerable if a surprise attack were to occur. Having watch towers at the top of the cliffs could at least ensure that their pack would have some warning before enemies appeared.

By the time the meeting ended, I was exhausted. It took practically all morning for each pack to give their status report on their defense systems, and for me to suggest some changes and how to implement those improvements.

I had lunch sent up to our bedroom, so I decided to spend a quick lunch with Briella before attending to the mountains of paperwork that needed my attention.

Briella was sitting in an armchair by the window reading when I entered. She beamed, her eyes lighting up when she saw me. She practically leaped out of her chair to skip over to me. I met her halfway and scooped her up in my arms.

“Hello to you too,” I chuckled, kissing her gently. I gave her a stern look when I pulled away. “Why aren’t you in bed?”

Briella just pouted up at me. “I’m feeling all better,” she informed me. “But I’m still resting like the healers suggested, just not in bed. I was sitting when you came in, wasn’t I?”

“True,” I allowed. I gestured to the tray that had been left by the maids. It was uncovered and untouched. “I had lunch sent up for us both. Thought we’d have a little date before I started on my afternoon paperwork.”

Briella grinned at me and kissed me. “Did you want some help with the paperwork?” she asked.

I handed her a plate with meats and veggies before taking one for myself. We sat across from each other at the small table by one of the windows. “Don’t worry about it,” I said, but I smiled gratefully at her. “Just focus on resting. You’re going to be returning to your own duties in just a couple of days. You might as well enjoy this forced break.”

Briella just scoffed and started to eat. I gazed at her in amusement, knowing full well that my wife wasn’t one to be holed up in her room and enjoy it. After nearly losing her to Tian, I couldn’t help but want to have her safely tucked up in bed for a little while, knowing full well that she would need to leave the safety of our room to attend to our kingdom.

“Thank you for sneaking away from duties to have lunch with me,” Briella said once we’d finished eating.

We both stood, and I wrapped my arms around her. “Of course,” I said. I smirked down at her. “Had to come visit my beautiful prisoner.”

Briella rolled her eyes. “Don’t say that,” she scolded. “It feels a little too accurate. I might have died of boredom by the time you came back tonight.”

It was my turn to roll my eyes at her dramatics. “You’re not alone,” I said. I put my hand over her flat tummy. “How is the little one doing?”

Briella blushed, but her eyes misted at my tenderness toward our child. “I’m sure they’re doing great,” she murmured. “It’s a bit too early to tell. It’s strange to think that I have someone living inside of me, isn’t it?”

That was a bit of an understatement, but I just nodded. “You two be safe while I’m gone,” I said, kissing Briella’s tummy, causing her to giggle.

“We can’t really get into much trouble up here,” Briella said.

“Don’t underestimate yourself, love,” I teased before kissing her firmly on the lips. “I love you. I’ll see you tonight.”

Briella smiled at me and waved as I opened the bedroom door. “I love you too.”

I tried to focus on my work, but thoughts of the baby flooded my mind after my lunch with Briella. It took me way too long just to complete a couple of forms, my pen scratching against the paper a bit more roughly than necessary.

I forced myself to do two more forms before I was nursing a good headache. I pushed myself away from my desk and wandered outside, needing some air.

I knew that I wanted this. I wanted to be a father, and I was excited to meet our child and see him or her for the first time. Briella and I created a life together. How could I not be happy?

Maybe it was only natural to question whether or not I was ready for parenthood. I didn’t have a lot of experience where children were concerned. I wondered if this was how my father felt when he learned that my sister was going to be born.

Being a top general kept my father pretty busy. He made time for Alyna and me when he could, but his duties sometimes kept him away from us for weeks at a time.

I looked up at the Embervale military base, surprised that my subconscious dragged me all the way over there. It didn’t seem like a coincidence. I was feeling pretty antsy, and doing some training sounded like just what the doctor ordered.

It felt odd to just wander into the base, but I was the king, so I wasn’t going to be stopped. I glanced around, nodding in approval at the layout and the activity going on around me. Many of the young recruits gaped at me as I passed, but I ignored them, striding purposefully toward the training rooms toward the back of the compound.

I immediately felt more relaxed as I stepped into one of the empty training rooms with its thick mats and practice dummies. It felt like home.

I did a few quick warm-up stretches before striking one of the dummies over and over with my fists and the sides of my hands, grinning in satisfaction at the sharp echoing blows.

I hadn’t even been at it for five minutes when the door to the training room opened. I looked over my shoulder as Drius entered, his light brown eyes widening as he focused on me.

“Your Majesty,” he said, bowing. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?”

I nodded to him, giving our head general a once-over. I couldn’t help but feel amused by the fact that not too long ago, we were at each others’ throats, and now he was my top general. Fate sure had a strange sense of humor.

“I was just blowing off some steam before returning to my duties,” I told him. “You seem to be leading this base well, General.”

“I do my best, Your Majesty,” he said with a grin.

“Let’s drop the formalities when in a casual setting like this one,” I requested, getting a little weirded out by having my former rival speaking so respectfully toward me.

Drius laughed and relaxed slightly. “As you wish,” he said. He raised an eyebrow. “You seem a bit wound up.”

I definitely wasn’t going to tell him about Briella’s pregnancy. I assumed she would like that honor since the two were best friends. “That sort of thing will happen when an entire kingdom is suddenly thrust on you.”

Drius’ eyebrows went up, and he nodded. “I couldn’t even begin to imagine,” he said. He smirked suddenly. “Wanna take out some of that energy on an actual person?”

I blinked at him in surprise before smirking right back. “You sure you want to challenge your king?”

Drius just laughed. “I’m sure having to attend to various royal duties has kept you from the training ground,” he quipped. “I’m sure I’ll survive.”

I rolled my eyes but tightened my jaw and lunged at him. After a few moments, I was pleased to see that we were still pretty evenly matched. I also hated to admit it, but I saw why Drius was Briella’s best friend. Despite his arrogance, he was a good guy.

That didn’t mean I was going to let him win though.