by Haley Weir
“That is truly an impressive story,” Holly said in awe.
“Well, I didn’t tell it to impress you,” Rubius chuckled before taking a more serious tone. “I told it to you so that you would know that rogue shifters have usually chosen that path in life because they have experienced something horrible, and rather than stay within a horrible situation, they choose to be alone.”
Holly was fascinated and was starting to become almost a little obsessed with wanting to talk to the lone shifter from the tavern and hear what his backstory was.
“Whoever this mystery shifter of yours is,” Rubius said, “I am sure that he has a good reason for why he isn’t in a pack. And to be honest, he probably just wants to be left alone and unbothered.”
The corners of Holly’s mouth formed into a slight pout.
“But you didn’t want to stay unbothered,” she reminded him. “You became an alpha, and then you met Mother and fell in love. You have a whole pack and a whole family now.”
“True,” he said. “And I wouldn’t change any of it for anything in the world. But not every lone shifter is the same, and none of us have gone through an identical experience. If this man that you have seen is shying away from you and everyone else, you can trust that it is probably for good reason.”
Holly nodded and thanked her father for the insight. The things that he said made sense, and she knew that he was probably right. The shifter at the tavern most likely wanted nothing to do with Holly, or anyone for that matter. Yet she couldn’t help herself. She had to see if she could talk to him.
Over the course of the next few days, Holly visited the tavern several times, making up new excuses each time so people didn’t start to think that she had a drinking problem. But each time she went, the man was never there. She began to think that maybe he had moved on to some other city or forest. But just as she was about to give up hope and was sitting at the bar talking with the tavern keeper about the upcoming feast at the castle—the man appeared. He sat down at the same table in the same corner, and the barmaid brought him an ale, which he drank within minutes. The tavern keeper poured another mug of ale, and as soon as Holly saw the barmaid come to take it from him and deliver it to the shifter, she intercepted it.
“I’ll take it to him,” she said with a smile. “He’s a friend of mine.”
The barmaid handed the mug over and went back to doling out more ale to other customers as Holly balanced the heavy and overfilled mug and walked toward the corner table where the shifter was sitting. For a second, he looked at her in confusion as if he was wondering why she was walking his way and had his mug of ale. But then his eyes widened as he seemed to realize that Holly was coming to talk to him, and he immediately got up and headed toward the door. Holly handed the mug of ale to the closest person and darted after the mysterious shifter. This time, she was not going to let him get away.
CHAPTER SIX
Holly chased the shifter through the city and all the way to the forest. Then, once he was out of sight of the humans, he shifted and ran into the woods. Holly glanced around her quickly and then did the same. She pounced onto her four feet, racing through the woods after him. She was fast. But it seemed that he was even faster. She ran in the direction where she saw his streaking dark shadow ahead of her and kept on running until it seemed that he was getting farther and farther from sight. By the time Holly realized that she had lost him, she was also further out than she had ever been. She thought that she had been to every last corner of the woods, but apparently not, because this was somewhere that she had never ventured before. She shifted back into her human form, since she had given up the chase, and looked around her.
This part of the forest was thick with moss and mushrooms. There was a stream in the near distance that she could hear trickling, and plenty of game to be had. She could hear the sounds the animals were making all around her. It was a lush and thriving part of the forest, untouched by settled packs or human hunting parties. And it was one of the most beautiful enclaves that she had seen.
Since there was no longer a need to rush before heading back to the city, she took her time looking around. If she could remember how to get back to this place, she would like to show it to Rubius. He would appreciate its untouched beauty, as did she. She wandered around a little, looking at the wildlife and trying to remember which way she had come from the kingdom. But then she stumbled upon something—a den.
There, in the middle of this remote and isolated chunk of forest, was a den. It was nestled into the side of a massive hollowed tree trunk and looked only to be big enough for one. She peeked her head inside and saw all of the modest comforts of home. In front of the den was a makeshift campsite with the remnants of a small bonfire and an empty mug. She picked up the mug and lifted it to her nose to smell. A whiff of pungent ale filled her nostrils. Whoever this den belonged to liked ale. She snooped around some more, thinking about the fact that this place had to belong to the shifter, or else an ostracized human that had chosen to be a recluse in the forest. As she was still looking around, the rogue shifter appeared. He stood behind her until Holly felt his presence and whipped around to put her arms up defensively. The man, now in his human form, didn’t flinch at all. He simply looked at her curiously until she lowered her arms. The two of them stood there staring at each other for a minute and saying nothing. There was a moment when Holly was both scared and intrigued simultaneously. But then, the moment was broken by the sound of the shifter’s voice.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. His tone was unwelcoming and definitely abrasive.
Although she was nervous, Holly didn’t take heed to his tone. She would have been abrasive if she had walked in on someone going through all the dresser drawers in her bedroom—same thing as this.
When some people got nervous, they lost their voice entirely. Holly, on the other hand, rambled.
“I followed you out of the tavern. Didn’t you see me? Never mind, I know you saw me. I tried to catch you, but then I lost you, and then I stumbled upon this place, and then—”
“Stop talking,” he said as he shook his head. It was as if there were too many words coming out of her mouth for him to listen to all at once. “You need to leave.”
“No!” she said with a high-pitched plead. “No, I want to stay for just a few more minutes. I want to talk to you and ask you who you are, and what this place is, and—”
“Why do you talk so much?” he asked her in annoyance.
“I’m nervous,” she admitted. She could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks.
“Because of me?”
She didn’t answer that question, but he answered it for her.
“Good, you should be. Now leave,” he said again.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, ignoring his direction for her to leave. “Why are you out here all by yourself instead of with the other packs? Are you a rogue shifter?”
She turned and looked around her again.
“This place is really cool; did you make all of this yourself? And if you like being so reclusive, then why are you inside the kingdom so much?”
He looked at her as if she was delusional. He had asked her to leave twice now, yet somehow she still managed to stand there and continue launching an endless stream of questions.
“I like the ale at the tavern,” he said, answering one question that she had asked. “Now I want you to—”
This time, it was her turn to interrupt.
“Yes, yes, I know. You want me to leave,” she said. “But I don’t want to, not yet anyway. Please let me stay and talk to you for a while. I want to know all about your experiences without a pack.”
“No,” he said in more of a growl this time. His dark hair blew wildly around him in the cold breeze, and his captivating eyes stared back at her. “Leave.”
There wasn’t much more Holly could do. He wasn’t going to answer more of her questions, and it wasn’t like she could just stay t
here on his territory uninvited without causing a problem. If he truly was rogue without a pack, then that meant he answered to no one. Which meant that he could try to kill her right there on the spot and probably get away with it. Still, she hated giving up after she had finally tracked him down and had so many burning questions to ask. The idea of leaving this beautiful and mysterious part of the forest, with a lone shifter who was equally intriguing, just to go back to the boring monotony of the castle, made her pout.
Fine,” she said. “I’ll go. But maybe someday you’ll let me buy you an ale and talk with me at the tavern.”
“Doubtful,” he murmured as she turned to leave.
Holly was fairly heartbroken about not being able to stay and find out more, but just after she had taken a few steps to leave, she turned back around for a final glance at the gorgeous shifter and was pleasantly surprised to see that he was staring back at her too. For a guy who didn’t want her to stay for more than a second, his eyes sure were giving a different message. When their gaze locked, he suddenly pulled his face away as if he had been caught doing something that he shouldn’t have been.
As she reluctantly walked away, Holly couldn’t help but think that the dark shifter’s look had seemed more intense than that of just a casual recluse who wanted someone off their territory. It seemed almost as if he had trouble not looking at her.
She took a moment to get her bearings and decide which way to walk back toward the kingdom. She had made it only about halfway there when she thought that she heard some light shuffling behind the trees and felt sets of eyes watching her. She quickened her pace and brushed it off as being her imagination, but her wolf senses were too keen to ignore.
Someone was definitely watching her. Being followed in the forest wasn’t any big deal as long as it was just one or two people she could easily take and win. But this felt like several people, and that might have been more than she could handle. She froze for a moment, trying to decide whether to turn back or to try and shift and make a run toward the castle. It sounded as if she was surrounded, and that made the situation more difficult. Holly turned around, feeling a pair of eyes boring a hole into the back of her head, and was surprised to see that it was the leader of a small group of human hunters that had spotted her.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Hello,” Holly said with a smile, trying to make the interaction between her and the band of human hunters as casual and amicable as possible in the hope that it would persuade them just to let her pass unharmed.
“What are you doing out here?” one of them asked her.
She could tell by his abrupt and accusatory tone of voice that they had no respect for her position as queen. In fact, if memory served, these men were among those that protested at her crowning ceremony. They were in the group of men that Rubius and Theo had to quell with threats of consequence and punishment if they raised a hand against their new queen. A foreboding feeling crept over her.
“I was going for a walk,” she lied.
“In the forest alone?” another one of the men asked. This one grinned as he asked the question, which made it even creepier. His crooked teeth shone through the slit of his smile.
“I am not alone,” she said. “My brother is nearby.”
“That’s not true,” the man said. “We just saw Prince Theo in the city before we left to come hunt. Now, why would you lie about your purpose for being out here?”
Holly felt her heart begin to race inside of her chest. She thought about her options. She could outrun them, but only if she shifted, and she couldn’t shift in front of them. She could scream, but she was too far away from both the city and where the packs were for anyone to hear her. She had a dagger in her boot that she could wield, and was an excellent fighter, but there were five of them and only one of her. She might be able to kill or wound one or two of them, but she wouldn’t be able to fend them all off at once.
“You need to let me pass,” she commanded. She thought that maybe if she sounded the part of a queen giving a direct order, it might make them think twice about messing with her and pissing off the royal family.
“I don’t think we do,” he said. “I think that it’s very suspicious that you would be out here in the woods all alone at dusk. I think that maybe our new queen has something to hide.”
Holly panicked, thinking that they had reason to suspect that she was a shifter. Up until now, the existence of shifters had all but faded from their memories. She started to think that if they already knew she was a shifter, then it wouldn’t matter if they saw her shift and run. At least then, she could manage to get away from them and get back to Rubius and her mother and brother. They’d have to deal with the aftermath. Maybe Rubius could just send some of his pack to kill them. Killing this group of men would be no loss, of that she was sure.
“Maybe the reason you’re out here is that you are looking for a place to hide once you are exposed for the illegitimate heir that you are.”
Holly let out a breath that she had been holding in. They didn’t suspect that she was a shifter; they simply suspected that her claim on the throne was invalid. That was easier to deal with than the other, at least. Still, there was a definite sense of danger in the air.
“Maybe we should try to expose her secret out here in the woods,” the first man said. He had bushy eyebrows that seemed to join his entire forehead together into one hair-filled line. “If we can get her to talk out here, then we’ll be able to prove that she shouldn’t be sitting on that throne.”
“How dare you,” Holly said as she started to get more angry than scared. These guys were nothing but a bunch of bullies trying to harass a woman in the woods alone. “You have no reason to think that I don’t have every bit as much of a claim to the throne of Grenvich as my brother does.”
“Actually,” one of the other men said, “we do.”
She stared at him until she could see the intense hatred in his eyes. She wanted to ask him how he could possibly know that her mother had an affair that resulted in her conception, but she couldn’t think of a way to ask him to prove it without insinuating that he might be correct. So instead, she pursed her lips together tightly and just glared at him.
“I have a better idea,” yet another of the men said. “Let’s solve this problem completely. There’s no one here to see anything. I say we just kill her where she stands. Then, the royal family will have no choice but to put someone else on the throne. That’s the easiest solution to this whole problem.”
Holly watched in horror as the other men nodded and seemed to be in agreement with that idea.
“What you are proposing is to assassinate the Queen of Grenvich,” she said as she tried to keep her voice from shaking. “Your actions will be punishable by death.”
“There is only a punishment for assassination if we get caught,” he said. “Which we will not. Look around, Your Highness.”
The sarcasm in his voice made Holly feel sick to her stomach.
“There’s no one here to see anything. And there are wolves in these forests, so by the time anyone even thinks to come looking for you in the woods, the wolves will have licked your bones clean.”
At the mention of the word wolves, they were met with the sound of a low and predatory growl. Holly saw all of the men look behind her, and suddenly, their faces blanched, and looks of fear crawled across them. She turned around quickly and saw a massive black wolf emerging from behind the trees. Holly stared at the wolf and recognized those eyes—the rogue shifter from the tavern.
No sooner had the men seen the wolf than they pushed off their feet and turned to run. Instead of letting the cowards run away freely, the dark wolf chased after at a furious speed. Holly simply stood there in the clearing, frozen in place. She was still shocked that the human men were ready to kill her on the spot, with no fear of the consequences, but she was more shocked about the wolf. The rogue shifter’s den was half the forest away, not anywhere near close enough f
or him to have heard the scuffle that she was having in the woods with the hunters. And even if he had heard it, she was stunned that he would have come to her defense. He acted as if he couldn’t have cared less about her just moments ago, and then he had been the only thing standing in the way of her and death. She stood there in the silence of the forest and waited for something to happen. After several more minutes had passed, the wolf returned. Except now, he wasn’t a wolf—he was a man.
He had chased the hunters all the way back to the forest’s edge and watched as they went screaming into the city about being attacked by a giant black wolf the size of a house. And then, he had come back to where Holly was still standing. He stood there in front of her, completely naked in his human form after having freshly shifted back. His muscles were taut and flexed from having just finished chasing the humans, and beads of sweat dripped down his defined torso from the exertion, even in the cold air. She tried not to look at the massive cock that hung between his legs, but her eyes rested upon it with an insatiable desire that she couldn’t seem to stop. His chest heaved as he caught his breath and stared at Holly with the eyes that had drawn her to him the first time she had seen him sitting in the corner of the tavern. He reached his hand up and ran it through the messy dark hair sticking to the sweat on his forehead.
“Thank you,” she finally uttered as she stumbled over her breathless words.
He didn’t say anything. He just looked at her as if he couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes away. Holly also couldn’t help but notice that the appendage between his thighs was swelling as if having a visceral reaction to just looking at her.
“I don’t even know your name,” she said, now completely flustered.
This time, he answered her with a single word.