The Werewolf Queen
Page 1
The Werewolf Queen
Wheel of Crowns book 1
Brandi Elledge
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
The Queen of Witches
The Vampire Queen
The Demon Queen
Acknowledgments
About the Author
The characters and events portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Printed by Aelurus Publishing, January 2019
Copyright © Brandi Elledge, 2019
Cover design by Molly Phipps
All rights reserved. Unauthorised distribution or reproduction is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the publisher.
* * *
ISBN 13: 978-1-912775-06-4
www.aeluruspublishing.com
This one is for God who loves me even though I’m sometimes undeserving and for my family who is my biggest blessing.
Chapter One
This was it, what every teenager dreamed of. The last week of school. Everyone always said, “One day you will miss this,” but I had a feeling those people were delusional or perhaps sentimental jocks. Little Reef High School would soon be an end of a chapter in my life, and that thought alone made me ecstatic. After parking my beat-up Nova in the designated lot for seniors, I marched to my first class of the morning—supernatural history—like a girl on a mission. Five days and done.
The building before me was relatively tiny, as far as schools go. Two levels and eight rooms, not including the cafeteria, gym, or library, was all there was to my school. I guess, historically speaking, the aesthetics were cool. The bricks making up the school were the first ever to be laid in this small town, so to say the building was old was an understatement. Yeah, the building was cool, as was the small town I’d known my whole life. I loved living on the Palmetto State coast. Sand, beaches, and the sun were my friend. What totally sucked about my town were the kids who attended the school—a school for supernaturals. Our school catered to witches, warlocks, and similar beings.
Our town had no werewolves, vampires, and definitely no humans. A long time ago, some old geezer put a magic spell over our town repelling humans.
Jolene, my best friend—Jo for short—met me as I was going up the stone steps leading to my current Hell. Jo had to come in early this morning to do some research in the library, such a closet nerd. She rocked her usual gothic attire, and I smiled at how I knew the pair of us appeared together. Me with my white-blonde hair hanging to my hips, tan skin, and sporting a bright yellow sundress, and her with her pale skin, jet black hair cropped in a bob that was shorter in the back with the front pieces touching her shoulders, and wearing Lara Croft Tomb Raider attire. She was the yin to my yang.
“Dude! It’s hot as balls out here,” she said, as her heavy boots clonked up the stairs.
“Thirty-five more hours and we never have to come here again, unless we decide to toilet paper the grounds at night,” I said more for myself than her. A last-minute pep talk before the bell rang. I hated this place.
“Sadie, don’t let your anger get the best of you on this glorious morning. Stay classy, friend.”
Why, hello Confucius. Sometimes—no most of time—it sucked to have a friend who was psychic. Jo was a walking fortune cookie. She would give little clues or hints, but she never just outright revealed what was about to go down. I hated surprises almost as much as I hated the boy we were about to pass.
Timothy sat on some benches outside of the school with his loser friends. His auburn hair was perfectly coiffed. His blue eyes glared at Jo. He was one of the richest boys in school, but when he realized that money wouldn’t get him everything, like a date with Jo, he turned psycho on the psychic. He had made her life a living hell this last four years.
He said loud enough for everyone to hear, “Look! It’s Morticia Addams.”
My mouth opened, but Jo lightly touched my wrist. This must be what she’d predicted. Well, I would show her. I could be classy when I wanted to be.
We started to move past him when he said, “I heard her mother slit her wrists as soon as she took one look at Jo.”
Class was overrated. “Timmy, what’s up, bud? I’m super impressed that you just said a whole sentence without your voice squeaking. Puberty must have finally happened for you.” I bluntly stared at his crotch. “Well, maybe not all the way. At least from what I hear in the girl’s locker room. But don’t be ashamed. It’s all good. Well, you know, as good as it’ll probably get.”
His cheeks turned crimson as his friends laughed at him. As we walked past him, I could feel him glaring at our backs.
Jo pulled me into the school. “Dude, I warned you.”
I just shrugged. “Moms should be a no-no subject. He pressed a button, and class flew out the window. Sorry.”
She sighed. “Don’t apologize when you don’t mean it.”
“Um? I’m sorry that I’m not sorry.”
She was shaking her head at me as we entered our first class of the day. Lucky for us, Timmy wasn’t in this one. It would give him time to lick his wounds and me time to cool down. He shouldn’t have brought up her mom and he knew that. Jo’s mom was a psychic, too, but she had let the voices control her, and in the end, she went crazy.
Mr. Borrow, also known as Mr. Boring, hiked up his pants way past his navel, because why not? His glasses were sliding down, so he pushed them back up his chubby face. “All right class, since we only have a week left today, we’re going to talk about the future.” He glanced at Jo, and she gave him a stiff nod. What the hell?
She caught me looking at her. “Pay attention.”
Mr. Boring pulled down a map of the world. “As we’ve discussed, a thousand years ago there was a battle amongst the supernatural community. This battle was between the Lux and the Degenerates. We’ve lightly skimmed over what each group represents, but today I would like to go more in depth. I would like to discuss the different factions and who are the leaders of these factions. Now, we’re lucky our town hosts mostly witches and variations of witches, like our mind readers and healers, but out there,” he said, tapping the map, “are all kinds of supernaturals, including vampires and werewolves.”
I felt myself nodding off. It was way too early in the morning to listen to his monotone voice talking about some dead people or overgrown dogs. Pain radiated in my shin, causing my eyes to water.
“Did you just kick me with those big ass boots?” I snarled.
Jo pointed a finger at me. “Pay attention.”
Jeez. Since when was Jo concerned with my learning? She should have been on me our freshman year, not the last week of our senior one. Girl had issues.
I glared at her as Mr. Boring continued, “These two groups, the
Lux and the Degenerates, came into play when the supernatural community was divided. Some factions saw that Earth would be destroyed if there weren’t rules. Some didn’t want to play by the rules.”
David, a cute, but nerdy kid who had social anxiety issues with everyone but teachers, pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Like, don’t eat the humans?”
Mr. Boring nodded. “Yes, David. But also, Earth needed to be able to sustain all living creatures, and that would be hard to do if the land was torched. Some supernatural factions didn’t care if they ruined the land and made it barren because they didn’t need food to survive.” He tapped the map again with a stout finger. “There are forty-nine portals all over the world. Can someone tell me how many keys there are that will open and close these portals?”
Jo raised her eyebrows at me. Did she expect me to answer his question? I gave her my best hell-if-I-know look, earning me an eye roll.
David, sweet, sweet nerdy David, piped up, “Seven, Mr. Borrow.”
“Yes, David, seven keys will open these portals. Now, I know that I’m jumping around a bit, but try to stay focused.”
Was he looking at me? What was happening today? I sat up straighter in my seat.
“There was a meeting,” Mr. Boring continued. “The supernaturals that didn’t want any harm to come to earth or its inhabitants, like humans, decided that they would send the debauched, wicked miscreants, also known as the Degenerates, through the portals to different planes. This was a good plan. The bad guys who wanted to harm earth would now be cast from it. All the nobles, also known as the Lux, had to control and keep the seven keys safe.”
Jo mumbled, as she stared off into space, “Not all that were cast from earth are bad. Need to fix that.”
Um, okay? I silently wondered if she ate any more of those brownies recently.
Becky raised a hand. “I understand the Degenerates are the bad guys, but they’re bad because?”
This time I kicked Jo. “At least I’m paying more attention than Becky.”
Mr. Boring smiled kindly at Becky. Go figure.“Most of the Degenerates were and are made up of demons, ghouls, rogue vampires, and were-creatures. They are bad because they don’t care about anyone but themselves. Now, most of them were dragged through the portals by the powerful Lux. Of course, the Lux couldn’t round all of them up, but over the span of forty years, they did their best. The Degenerates the Lux missed were either too powerful to be dragged through the portal, or they went into hiding. Recently, some powerful Degenerates have come out of hiding, forming small armies to go after the Lux.”
“But there’s not enough Degenerates on earth to worry about, right?” David asked.
Mr. Boring grimaced. “Normally, no, but the seven keys have recently gone missing, and there is talk that the Degenerates are opening the portals to let the cruelest supernaturals back over.”
Color me intrigued. I raised my hand. “Mr. Bori… um, Borrow, how were the keys lost in the first place? I mean, if the Lux were so powerful that they could drag the Degenerates to different planes, how did they misplace the keys?”
Mr. Boring clapped his hands and Jo smiled. “Good question, Sadie!” He turned on his projector. “Someone dim the lights. The seven keys were distributed amongst the most powerful supernaturals.” A photo of a handsome, older gentleman graced the screen. He had silvery hair, and there was a certain light about him. “This is the Fae king. He was given a key to watch and protect, and he did that until his grandson stole it from him. Supposedly, his grandson was trying to prove his love for his girlfriend.” A second image replaced the first. It was of a young boy with spiky brown hair. “This was a young vampire who had a heart of gold, which is a rarity in the vampire community. Because he was strong and noble, he was entrusted with a key. Big mistake. He was too young, and his mighty strength wasn’t enough. The rogue vampires circled him like sharks around a baby seal. He was dead within twenty-four hours after being entrusted with the key. No one knows where the key is now.”
“That’s intense,” I whispered to Jo. She just put a finger up to her lips, telling me to be quiet. The way she was acting, you would think she foresaw a pop quiz at the end of class.
The next picture popped up of a striking, middle-aged guy with dark red hair and blue eyes. “This is the Zombie King; he got the title because he is a necromancer. He held the key for a time before he married the Vampire Queen. She killed him for his lack of ambition when it came to ruling the world, and she took the third key.”
A guy with long, stringy black hair and a hawkish nose flashed onto the screen. He was dressed in all black and had a serious, contemplative expression on his face. “This, class, was Devon. He was the ruler of the warlocks and witches. Everyone loved him for his kindness, and the whole community was in shock when his brother, Merek, killed him for the fourth key.”
Mr. Boring hit a button on the remote, switching the image. This time we all stared at a young girl who looked very ordinary. “This was a psychic who was killed in her sleep by Merek’s son, Cecil, for the fifth key.”
“You would have thought she would have seen that coming,” I murmured this time, dodging the kick Jo had intended to land. “Ha! See? I’m not a psychic, but I saw that coming.”
“The sixth key was stolen from the Werewolf King,” Mr. Boring continued. The image changed once again to a stunning man. He had a rugged look about him with his long, brown hair and blue-green eyes. “This was the Werewolf King. After a long search, he found his one true mate, and most of the supernatural community knew they could not steal the key from him, so they killed his mate instead. He followed his mate into the afterlife. A demon is rumored to have the key now.”
“This is super depressing,” I said out loud, causing several students to laugh.
“Yes, it is Sadie.” Mr. Boring nodded. “And the last key, the seventh key, no one knows who has or had it. There’s a rumor that a soothsayer had it at one point or another. There’s also a rumor that the same soothsayer has enlisted the most powerful Lux to find those keys. As a school comprised of Lux, we can only hope the soothsayer knows what he or she is doing.”
Mr. Boring turned the projector off, and a kid jumped up to turn on the lights. Of course, it was David. Mr. Boring sought me out. His eyes narrowed with laser beam focus. “Sadie, did I answer your question?”
“Yeah, the Lux lost the keys because of love. At some point, they trusted the wrong people or fell in love, and in the end, it killed them.”
Mr. Boring rubbed his forehead. I was pretty sure that wasn’t the answer he was looking for. “We’ve spent all semester learning about our individual powers. I told Principal Waylon that we should have been preparing all of you for what could possibly come to our doorstep, but he said the chances of that were slim to none but now…” He cleared his throat. “A war is coming folks—one between the Lux and the Degenerates. It’s imperative that the Lux find the seven missing or stolen keys and do a better job of guarding them this time. Maybe fate will call on one of you to save earth and all of us. In that case, remember the key players. Any questions?”
We had sixty seconds left of class, and I glared at my classmates, daring anyone to raise their hands. I sighed in relief, as no one asked a question, including the ass kisser. I would hate to have to harm sweet David, but a girl had to do what a girl had to do.
The bell rang, signaling it was time for the next class. I hopped up and moved towards the door before Mr. Boring decided to tell us one more thing. He stared at me in an overly concerned way. Either someone had stuck something to my back, or unbeknownst to me, I was failing his class. Here’s to hoping I was wearing a “kick me” sign. I so couldn’t afford to fail his class.
Chapter Two
It was lunchtime, and I was sitting with Jo in our little unspoken claimed spot next to the windows. She was playing with the potluck Monday cafeteria food but not eating. Strange. Jo was always eating or thinking about eating. “Why are you acting so weird?”
“Dude. I’m always weird, and you’re just now noticing,” she said, without her usual enthusiasm.
“Fine, why are you acting weirder than usual? What’s up?”
Her blue eyes went blank for a second before she returned her focus to me. “You do have powers. They are just not awake.”
What was she talking about? I was the only one at this school with no powers. Zilch. None. Nada. The only reason they allowed me to attend was because my family had pretty impressive magic, and everyone still held out hope for me. Plus, my older brother, Austin, graduated two years ago, and he made sure they’d allowed me into the school.
I batted my eyelashes at her. “Aww. My Disney-loving friend. Are you saying I’m like Sleeping Beauty?”
My best friend rolled her eyes. Jo’s love for Disney movies was borderline cray-cray and kind of funny, considering she was always channeling her inner Johnny Cash. Her wardrobe consisted of all shades of black.
“No, Sadie, I’m not saying that. Why do you try to romanticize everything?” In a sarcastic tone, she added, “I can picture you now, sitting at a spinning wheel, waiting for some hot hunk to rescue you. Let’s be realistic, though. As hyper as you are, I find it hard to believe that anyone could put you in a deep slumber. Well, except for that one time you got all jacked up on Pepsi and Skittles and came crashing down from the sugar high. Besides, if you were going to be a Disney character, it wouldn’t be that one. She was way too sweet and shy. You’re more like that Tangled chick with the frying pan.”