The Alpha: Claiming His Enemy's Daughter-Chapter 1000: BONUS - : WE WILL BE FINE

"I am proud of you since the first time I saw you and I still do now." Cane ruffled Zander’s hair. He watched how his son struggled with the thought of this huge responsibility.

"I don’t know how to be a king."

"I don’t know either," Cane replied.

"Father, you made a history. You and mother saved this kingdom from calamity and people worshiped you." Zander was desperate. "From south to north, people will only talk good thing about you."

Zander dreaded the thought that people would compare him and his father, but more importantly, he didn’t know what he was doing if his father didn’t tell him what to do. He was at lost.

"Look." Zander waved his hand at their surroundings. "You built everything from the scratch. You know what to do, but I don’t even know what I am doing here."

"Son." Cane placed his hand on his shoulder to stop him from breaking down even more. "I didn’t do any of this out of duty. I want to be a king because I realized only with power I can protect the people that important to me."

Zander pressed his lips, his habit whenever he was being frustrated and had a hard time to compose his words.

"You are powerful father."

Cane shook his head. "I am not. I am far from that." He stared at the distance. "If I am powerful, I wouldn’t have lost your twin sisters."

Zander fell silent. He knew the story about Rora and Chrystal, their mother told them about their twin sisters, who were only a year older than them.

"I almost lost your mother too. More than once." Cane tilted his head and looked at his son. "I am not powerful, but I will do anything to protect the people that I loved, that’s how I know what kind of path I am going to take."

Zander still didn’t say anything, but he lifted his head and looked at the distance. He watched how quiet the night was.

"You don’t need in hurry to figure it out. You are going to figure it out one day."

"What if I can’t be like you?" Zander turned his head and looked at his father. "What if I chose different path from you?"

"As long as you did it because you wanted to protect the people, do it." Cane smiled at him. "I chose different path from my father too."

Zander fell into silent again. freeweɓnøvel.com

"Things changed, Zan. The choice that I made today, might not be the best decision when you wanted to follow it in the future. The opportunity and chance that I have today, might be very different from yours.

There is no textbook of how to be a proper king. As long as you became a decent man, you are already half way there."

Cane hugged his firstborn. He remembered how small he was when the first time he held him and his brother in his arms, but right now, sixteen years had passed and they turned into great young men.

Zander hugged his father back tightly.

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The protection around the king and his two children were very tight and all the people gathered on the side of the street to see a glimpse of them.

"Oh, the daughter looks exactly like the queen!"

"Yeah, and the son is a splitting image of the king, aside from his blue eyes and his curly hair!"

"Princess Zaya is so adorable!"

"I wondered who would be the lucky girl to be the destined mate of prince Zander!"

"I heard he has a younger brother."

"I heard they are twin."

"Yes, I think the queen gave birth to twin."

"No, the queen gave birth to the older one a year prior."

"No, that’s their twin sister, who died during the war, the queen gave birth to twin boy after that."

"That’s not what I heard."

Most people in the east city came from the other continent. They came here to get an opportunity to do business and trade and Cane welcomed them all, since he really needed to raise the population of the continent. Afte the war, more than seventy percent of the shifters died, even now, their number was still not significant compared to the people from outside of the continent.

The elder people suggested to bring back the old tradition, to have mistresses for men, in that way, it would help to raise the number of their population.

But, Cane shot down the suggestion with disgust.

"Father, we will stay in that inn again, right?" Zaya asked, the three of them were inside the carriage and his daughter looked more cheerful to see so many people and attractions.

"Why?" Zander asked curiously because his sister had been beaming, since yesterday.

"I met with a cute boy around Rye’s age. He was very shy, but when he smiled, there are two dimples on his cheeks." Zaya raised her rabbit that she got from Lou. "He gave my bunny this!" She showed the ribbon around the rabbit’s neck. "I like him and he said, he likes me too!"

"We will not stay in that inn," Zander scoffed.

"Why?"

"I can make more beautiful ribbon than that," Zander claimed.

"You don’t even know how to tie a lace."

Zander shrugged. "You can only like me."

If there was something that urgently needed to work on from Zander before he took the throne, it must be his childish side.

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"You have not done yet?" Iris approached Zenith, who was staring at the distance, a bunch of report on the table next to him.

Zenith lifted his head and looked at his mother, who came with a tray of meal. He skipped his dinner again.

"You don’t need to, mother." Zenith immediately took the tray from his mother and helped her to sit down.

"Did your father leave you with so many assignments?" Iris stared at the piles of parchment.

Zenith shook his head. "He seemed to forget about them."

There it was, he had been observing that his mother would make that look whenever he mentioned about his father’s recklessness, his father had done this a couple of time and now it became noticeable, especially when Zenith was very observant.

"Mother. You can tell me the truth. What actually is going on?" He waited for his mother to open up with him. "You can’t brush it off as father’s recklessness, but I know it’s more than that."

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After one month in the east city, Cane and the other finally returned and Iris and Zenith waited for them at the spot where Lou used to use his portal.

"Mother!" Zaya looked happier than the last time she left, she rushed toward her mother and hugged her before she went to Zenith and hugged him too. "I missed you!"

"We missed you too, sweety," Iris said gently, as she caressed her cheek and then went to see her mate and her other son, while Zaya showed her rabbit to Zenith. "How’s in the east?"

"Not really nice. I didn’t have you there." Cane kissed Iris’s forehead. They were still like this even after being together for almost two decades and three children.

"How’s there?" Iris asked Zander. "Were you having fun?"

"Father gave me a lot of tasks," Zander grumbled.

"Hey, no one happy to see me?" Lou crossed his arms in front of his chest and Iris chuckled.

"You have been here back and forth, I just saw you two days ago," Iris said. "Try to disappear for a whole month and I probably will miss you."

Lou scrunched his nose and walked away. He refused to bring Cane or the children with him when he returned, because he always stated they were busy.

"Zen! You need to go the east too! The place is wonderful!" Zaya then told him everything, as they walked back to the pack house. "One day, let’s go together, all of us!"

"Yes, let’s go together," Cane said, as he picked Zaya up and kissed the tip of her nose.

"She is big already, you can’t pick her up like she was a baby," Iris said lightly.

"She will always be my baby." Cane then added playfully. "The two of you as well."

"No, thanks." Zander and Zenith replied at the same time. They didn’t want their father babied them.

Unfortunately, their plan to go to the east city together had never happened, because a week after that, Cane’s health declined. He spent most of his time inside the bedroom and Iris would always be by his side to take care of him.

Zander, Zenith and Zaya would come often to check on their father, but Cane used to sleep when they came over.

"Is father sleeping?" Zander asked Iris when he entered the bedroom. He stared at the king’s bed, which built with four pillars, but there was this valance that hid his father from their sight.

"Yes. He just slept after he took his medicine," Iris replied. She squeezed her son’s hand. "He will be fine. You don’t need to worry, for the meantime, I am sorry to bother you with the state affair."

Zander knew his mother was lying. "Okay." He nodded.

Later that night, Zaya came to their bedroom, she was carrying her bunny. "Mother, why father sleeps all the time?" She sat next to Cane, staring at her father’s face with sadness in her eyes.

"Because father is recuperating," Iris replied.

"Will he go like Lil Thing?" Zaya kissed the tip of Cane’s nose. "Will he go?"