Alchan at 95 Years old [POV]

Alchan had a mom once. And a dad.

I mentioned doing a backstory novella once about how Alchan and Luykas grew close through the loss of their parents, leaving them with really only each other. A long time ago, I posted a POV of Luykas walking away from living with Shadra to live in Anden and meet that side of his culture. Now, we’re going to see what happens to Alchan when he discovers Luykas exists and the devastation it wrought on his family.

UNEDITED, DON’T SEND TYPOS.

It was a normal morning. Alchan woke up alone, pulled on a pair of breeches, and made his way into the dining room. A yawn came over him as he grabbed a ripe apple from a basket. He bit into it as he sat down, not paying attention to the room.

“At least you put on pants,” a male mumbled. Alchan recognized the voice immediately, his body tensing as he realized his father was already up for breakfast.

“Good morning, Father,” Alchan said softly, keeping his eyes down, trying to blink the sleep from them and wake up quickly. His father expected perfection and failure to live up to the royal standard of their bloodline was a recipe for an early morning punishment that would be painful through the entire day.

“Good morning.” His father put down the book he was holding, his severe gaze coming across the table. “Good news. Asari will arrive today.”

“Mother is coming early? Will she be staying with us for an extra season?” Alchan’s heart jumped with excitement and hope. He only got to be with his mother for one season of the year, every winter. It wasn’t a traditional family dynamic for the Andinna but it worked for them. His father was a bedru that didn’t like to live with other males. He was too dominate and too dangerous. He could tolerate Alchan’s mother having other husbands only if he couldn’t see them. For one season, every year, Alchan and his father, Prince Behron of the Andinna, could live with her. It kept everyone safe.

“Possibly. The Queen wanted a family meeting later today,” his father explained. “You’ll be respected to your grandmother while we’re there. Understand?”

“Yes father.” Alchan had no problem with that. His grandmother, Queen Tayanna Andini, terrifying. As the ultimate ruler and Andinna on the throne, no one could meet her gaze unless they asked to. Alchan, being of royal blood, knew where that power came from because he was educated on it from the time he had started to read. Knowing the source of the power didn’t ease the fear it brought out in him. “Should I go to ready myself for a visit to the palace?”

They didn’t live in the palace like the rest of the royal family. They lived in a large estate just outside of the capital. If there were any other bedru males in the family, they would also live here, but they were the only two. The fact that his father had passed on the royal bloodline was already surprising. Most bedru didn’t have children. Fewer had another bedru for a child.

It was said that everyone knew what Alchan was before he could even walk. A Blackblood had proven him of royal blood the day he had been born. The fact that the royal blood ran true was the surprising part. Most male lines of the royal family died out within a single generation. Alchan was technically second generation. It would definitely die out with him.

More complicated than that was the fact that their bloodline was dictated by magic that no one could truly comprehend. They were the direct descendants of Larianna, the White Dragon, the goddess of light, leadership, and life. Members of the royal family were the only Andinna who could draw such a line back to the dragons that created their people. To look back on the royal family’s genealogy was to look at a puzzle of how the dominant nature passed through generations and died out in different branches.

Alchan had been cursed by the wild ways of the royal bloodline and he lived alone with his father because of it.

His father, who was not a kind or loving man. Not to his son, any way. Everyone who knew Behron knew that only Asari, his wife of nearly five hundred years, could soften his soul and make him presentable to the public.

They didn’t know how much she truly did. Alchan’s mother could only live with him for one season a year, but Alchan wanted more. When she was around, life was better in every way.

I can’t wait to see her. Will she notice how much muscle I’ve put on? I’ll be a big male with the last growth spurt. Maybe she and Grandmother will approve of me becoming a warrior. At least that will give me an outlet for the… monster in me.

“Did you hear me, boy?” his father growled.

Alchan’s head snapped up. He had lost his train of thought. “No Father, I’m sorry. I got wondering about… a lesson I had recently.” He had to think of the lie quickly. His father didn’t want him to be a warrior, though he couldn’t deny Alchan simple weapon training. He wanted Alchan to be a noble that managed more important things then a sword. He also disagreed with Alchan about being a bedru. Alchan believed it was a curse but Behron thought it was a blessing.

“Get out of my sight,” Behron snapped. “You’re obviously useless to me this morning. We leave just before lunch and will be eating there so do not ruin your appetite.”

Alchan jumped up and left the room, glad that he didn’t get hit. He didn’t take the apple, knowing his father wouldn’t allow it. When Alchan was dismissed from the table, he knew it meant as a punishment. He lost the right to the meal by upsetting his father.

One day, I won’t have to listen to him at all.

Every day, Alchan’s own dominant nature grew. He knew it would accelerate and peak soon. It was already a daily struggle to listen to his father silently as if he wasn’t an equal.

Only a few more years and I’ll be able to look him in the eye and tell him to fuck off. I’ll be able to leave and no one will be able to stop me.

Alchan would have fallen into a dark mood if it weren’t for the fact that he learned that his mother was coming today and that he would get to see her.

Alchan practiced in private with his wooden morok in his quarters to kill the time in the morning. He wouldn’t be allowed a real morok until he reached adulthood, but he practiced every day, twice a day. It was his way out of his father’s control. He could be a warrior in the Queen’s forces, one of the few places where a male was allowed to rise up in the order and take commands.

After practicing, he cleaned up and got dressed for an official visit to the palace because even if it wasn’t, his father expected him to look his best. He wore the family colors, black and white knowing that other colors weren’t allowed for him. His father liked when he looked official. While many disregarded Alchan as a member of the royal family, his father didn’t allow him to act like he was anything else. He was fifth, and last, in line for the throne and needed to behave like it.

One day, it won’t fucking matter and he knows it. He’s never going to get the throne and neither am I. Even if Grandmother passed away tomorrow, she has two daughters and a granddaughter to take the throne, all ringing true for the royal bloodline. He’s just clinging to the only power he has and forcing me to cling too.

Alchan beat his father to the front door of their estate and waited. His father came up shortly after him, looking him over, and only nodded once. That was all the praise Alchan would get for preparing himself well enough to pass his father’s inspection.

A nod.

Better than screwing up and getting hit right before seeing Grandmother and Mother. He’d make sure to hit where no one would see the bruise.

They flew together into the city. It wasn’t a long flight by any means and the family landing was open. His father landed first and Alchan followed two steps behind as they walked inside. This was protocol. He was the son, the second, the lower ranking one based on nobility. As a minor, he still had to follow it, but it irked him. He had a feeling it wouldn’t always be this way. Once he was an adult, he could make a bid to prove his dominance versus his father and see how it truly was.

They made their way to the throne room. Family meetings were large affairs. There were a lot of people in the family and when Grandmother called them, she was purposefully using her position as Queen to call order to them all. Alchan had only ever been two of these meetings in his life time, the first when he was very young and it was decided he would grow up with his father while being taught in the ways of the royal family. The second was about succession. Alchan’s aunts wanted to finally fight it out who was truly second in line. In the end, the Queen had made the decision without a fight breaking out.

Now was the third time and Alchan finally felt a sense of foreboding as he made his way to traditional place in the room. Already in the room were his aunts and his female cousin, only ten years younger than him. His aunts’ husbands were not, but the Queen’s were. His grandfathers were normal males who just happened to love and be loved by a female who became a queen. For females in the royal family, they could take any husbands they wished but the males gained no power or privilege of the family until the female sat on the throne. They were upgraded to Lords if needed but nothing more and they weren’t allowed in the room. Also not allowed in the room were males where the blood didn’t run true. Alchan was the only grandson in the room because of this.

His grandmother wasn’t in the room yet, the throne empty. Only her husbands stood on the raised floor where the empty throne waited. Sitting in it was strictly prohibited to all adults. Sometimes children would play in it, but that was ended quickly when they were caught.

Alchan searched the room for his mother and caught her as she walked in through the main doors. Normally, she wouldn’t attend these. He saw her beautiful and warm orange eyes across the room. Her black hair was long, pinned back. She even had her other husbands with her. Alchan wasn’t close to Delkon and Venar, because he hadn’t been allowed in their presence most of his life. His father didn’t want him spoiled by other males. Every time he did see them, they had the same sadness in their eyes. Their female had a child they weren’t allowed to raise. He felt it as well. He had two males in his life who were supposed to be fathers to him but he wasn’t allowed to be with them because of his royal blood.

“Unusual,” one of Alchan’s aunts whispered. Jadera.

“Grandmother probably invited them,” Illari, his older, aunt said. “Means this is about Behron and his boy. We’ve been through something like this before, remember?”

Alchan looked down, ashamed. Was that what it meant?

“Will you both be quiet?” Behron asked, looking at his sisters.

“It’s true, big brother,” Illari said with a shrug. “Just as if my husbands would be in for any business concerning my daughter.”

Alchan stopped paying attention, keeping his eyes down and trying to seem like he wasn’t there. He stayed that way until a hand gently touched his cheek.

“My beautiful son,” she said softly. “How I miss you while we’re apart.”

He looked up at her and fell into her eyes, always loving, always welcoming.

“I’ve missed you as well, Mother.” He gave her a small smile and her own widened. She kissed his cheek before turning to his father.

“Behron,” she purred, touching his arm. “How are you?”

“Paralyzed every moment until I can be with you again,” his father said, pulling her closer to him. Alchan looked at Delkon and Venar who were both looking away respectfully.

“I need to find my place. Let’s hope this goes quickly. I’m curious as to why she needed me here today, but I hope it’s not serious.” Asari was still smiling as she stepped away from them and went to their places in the throne room, beyond and behind them, further away from the throne than anyone else in the room.

They waited for a long time, which was unusual in and of itself. When Alchan’s grandmother finally walked into the room, everyone was losing their patience.

But none of them said anything about it as she stormed to her throne, shoving pieces of paper at her oldest and first husband.

“I’ve read these over and over and I can not begin to rationalize it,” she growled without looking at anyone but her males. “Who is so callous to do something like this? Did we fail so badly in our duties?”

“No, love,” grandfather Faryn said softly, taking the papers and flipping through them. “You didn’t fail. We did.” He nodded to her other husbands. “This is on us.”

The suffering sigh of the Queen told the room this meeting was going to take a turn none of them wanted. This wasn’t just a family affair. This was a deep cutting one. This was going to haunt them for a long time. Alchan had never heard her make that particular sigh before, but the tension in the room was too much for him not to realize the same thing as everyone else.

Queen Alyna sat down slowly, looking over all of them, her eyes resting on him for far too long. Her amber eyes were sad, worried, and there was a hard undercurrent of fury. He saw himself in those amber eyes because he and his father had inherited them from her.

What happened? Have I done something? Please, don’t let it be me. Please.

Then her eyes left him and went beyond, behind him. Her next words shook him to his core.

“Lady Asari, please forgive me, for I am about to ruin your life.”

There was an audible inhale through the room as everyone collected their breath in shock.

“What do you mean, Your Majesty?” My mother was bold, asking directly to the issue. She was dominant in her own right. She was technically a mativa of a noble house in training still as she waited for her own mother to pass on and leave the power to her.

“Love?” The Queen held out her hand and Faryn put the papers back in her hand. She found one and began to read.

“’Queen Alyna. I have arrived in Empire and to the house of one Lady Shadra, betrothed of Emperor Lothen. The rumors are true. She has a mutt son, a male named Luykas. The story told in the area is that she adopted him directly after his birth ninety-five years ago.’” The Queen sighed again and lowered the letter, looking at Behron. “I sent Javon to clean up your mess, Behron.”

Alchan felt his world begin to fall apart.

His mother was growling behind him now, a low, persistent sound.

“No,” his father said in a hushed way, disbelieving. “No.”

“When were you going to tell me that you fathered a second son?” the Queen asked, her voice hard.

“He’s not mine,” Behron snarled. “She was a slut who took many lovers. There’s no—”

“Let me continue,” the Queen snapped. “‘He’s the splitting image of the Prince. Not his father, but of his brother. They could be twins if not for his unique coloring. He was born in the autumn, probably six months after Prince Alchan.’” The Queen gave the letters back to Faryn. “Would you like to try again, Behron? Because I have all the evidence I need to continue.”

“When?” Alchan’s mother asked, the word like a viper strike, venomous and lightning fast.

Alchan stared wide eyed at his grandmother, his mind trying to process this new information. His father turned slowly.

“I didn’t—”

“Don’t keep lying to her, Behron,” the Queen ordered, standing up from her throne. “You tell her everything or I will show her everything. General Lorren knew of the affair as it happened. He didn’t know you had left your seed behind until recently, but the affair was always known about. Don’t bother trying to pretend it didn’t happen.”

“Mother,” Jadera said tried to cut in, her hands up in a placating fashion.

“Silence,” Alyna snapped. “This family meeting is to discuss two things. First, Behron you will face the judgment of your wife and a decision will be made concerning the future of your relationship with her. Here, in front of the eyes of the gods. Once that is decided, we’ll discuss the boy who is already on his way to the palace with General Lorren.”

“Asari—” Alchan’s father took a step. Alchan turned, his eyes still wide to look at his mother.

“Don’t come near me,” his mother snapped as she took a step back. Delkon and Venar stepped forward and in, making themselves shields. Alchan could see his mother between them, but she was mostly covered.

“You have to understand—”

“I don’t need to understand anything,” she growled. “Thank you, Your Majesty, for this new information. I can put the timeline together well enough. I went through my fertile cycle, which we gave to you alone. You left only days later on a diplomatic trade mission for the Queen. After you left me pregnant, you fucked an Elvasi woman and seeded her. I can’t believe you!” she roared at the end, fury taking over her face. “If you think you are ever welcome in my bed again, you are mistaken. We are done, Behron.”

“You can’t leave me,” Behron growled, his shoulders hunching as he took another step closer. Then another. Alchan watched as his mother backed away. His father was threatening her, that much was obvious.

“Guards,” the Queen called with no real urgency. “Asari, I warned you when you accepted him that bedru males don’t allow their lovers to leave. You know what must be done.”

“Do it,” she snapped, looking over his father at his grandmother. Guards began to surround Behron. Alchan was trapped as well, getting caught. He tried to back out of it and the guard didn’t let him leave the circle. “Do it.”

“You’ll lose everything,” Alyna warned softly. “Your name, your house, your nobility.”

“Don’t do this,” Behron snarled. “You can’t do this, Asari! I will always find you. You will always be mine.”

“Mother?” Alchan called, his heart pounding.

The room’s charge changed. The guards around him stiffened at his single word.

“Asari, if you want to be rid of one, you have to give up the other,” Queen Alyna said softly. “It’s not safe otherwise.”

His mother looked at him and her fury faltered.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I can’t be with him after this and it’s the only way. He can’t know where I go.”

“NO!” Alchan screamed, trying to jump through the guards. “Don’t leave me!” He reached out. He needed her. She kept him safe. She loved him. She couldn’t leave him. “No. Don’t do this! Please, Mother!”

She took another step back, looking away from him. He hated that he caught fear in her eyes but hit need for her was overriding all else. “You Majesty? How do we handle the arrangements?”

“I’ve already made plans for you in case you made this decision. My husbands will escort you to your new home. Your family will be notified. You can take your husbands with you,” the Queen said, deceptively calm.

Alchan continued to plead with her. He wasn’t sure how anyone could have a conversation with him in the room. He finally broke through the guard and was tackled to the ground, only making it halfway to his mother.

Something possessive took over his soul. A monster came out of him, roaring in fury as reality began to sink in, even as he was weighed down by the guards.

She’s my mother. She can’t leave me. She’s mine. She’s mine! SHE’S MINE!

“Take Prince Alchan out of the room!” His grandmother’s voice was clear over it all, his screams becoming background noise to even his own ears.

As they pulled him away, he caught the sight of his father also being pinned down, enraged as he tried to reach her.

“SHE’S MINE!” his father roared. “MINE!”

As Alchan struggled against the guards, he watched his father do the same. He couldn’t see his mother anymore.

They pulled him out through a side door as he screamed. He wanted to kill the guards and go to her. They couldn’t take her away from him. They couldn’t.

This can’t be happening.

No.

No, please.

Don’t leave me. You’re mine!

You’re my mother!

Please!

He roared once last time, a last surge before the door was able to close. He got out of their hold and made it back into the throne room, only to get tackled from behind. He looked for her.

She was already gone.