Sheltered by the Alpha Bear: Alpha Werebear BBW Interracial Shifter Paranormal Romance

by Jasmine Wylder

  “I like it.” Ilyssa continued to pet him. “Your voice is deeper when you’re like this, kind of growly. But it’s nice.”

  Standing up, she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her cheek against his chest. She liked the way the fur felt against her bare skin.

  “Mm,” she said. “You know, back at the camp the winters could get so cold that we would sometimes have to share our beds with the hunting dogs.” She smiled. “This is going to be so much better. No fleas, for one.”

  Alaric chuckled. “Not a one,” he said, and enfolded her in a warm embrace of strong arms.

  Chapter Six

  Ilyssa knew it would be a matter of time before word reached Emberi of the impending nuptials, especially when the bride-to-be wore a priceless heirloom long held by that kingdom’s ruling family. Within the week, as Lobishome transformed into a spectacle of garlands and banners bearing hand-painted images of Prince Alaric and his future wife, an ambassador arrived from Emberi. It came as a great surprise to everyone when that person turned out to be none other than King Willem’s wife.

  “Jessana, Queen of Emberi,” Mardell said addressing the elegant woman dressed in the rich purple and red robes of her kingdom as she stood before the throne. Alaric held a position beside him, one hand resting on his father’s shoulder. “It is an honor to welcome you to Lobishome.”

  She bowed her head in acknowledgement. “It is an honor to be so welcomed,” she replied. She looked around, her waist-long braid of dark brown hair swaying with the movement.

  “On behalf of Emberi, please allow me to congratulate you on the impending marriage of your only child. May you live to see your grandchildren’s grandchildren.”

  “A generous blessing,” Mardell said, smiling. “In turn, allow me to express my deepest condolences to you on behalf of the loss of your own son. News of his passing reached us last winter. Despite any differences our kingdoms may have had, I imagine the death of one’s child to be as devastating as the passing of one’s spouse.”

  He pressed a palm to his chest. “Ten years have passed since the death of my beloved wife, and I still grieve.”

  “Let us not speak of such melancholy matters,” Jessana said, holding up one delicate hand. “I have come to see the one who bears the Diadem of Akara.”

  Up until that moment, Ilyssa had watched the exchange from a doorway hidden behind a tapestry. Her heart pounded fiercely in her breast. Taking a deep breath, she smoothed her suddenly damp palms down over her new dress, one of several tailored for her over the past few days, and stepped out of hiding.

  “You would be here to see me, then,” she announced.

  She shot a glance over at Alaric, who treated her to an affectionate smile as she crossed the room. Jessana turned to face her; the queen’s beatific smile faltered. Ilyssa stopped before her and curtseyed, the light glinting off the diadem as she moved.

  “Hello,” Ilyssa said, “Mother.”

  Jessana’s blue shimmered with unshed tears and her lips quivered.

  “Hello, my daughter,” she whispered, and then reached out, pulling Ilyssa into arms.

  “’Daughter?’” Alaric exclaimed.

  Ilyssa looked up at him, seeing the shock registered on his face. King Mardell appeared to be just as startled by this discovery. Alaric sailed down from the dais and stared at Ilyssa.

  “You never told me you were a princess of Emberi!”

  Ilyssa offered an apologetic smile. “The key word here is ‘were.’ I didn’t tell you because I no longer considered myself to be a member of the royal family after I ran away.”

  “You are and always will be my child,” Jessana insisted. “Not a day passes that I don’t think of you.”

  Ilyssa softened at her mother’s sentiment. “Did you get the flowers?” she asked.

  Jessana smiled and nodded, dabbing the tears from her cheeks with her fingertips.

  “The white Everstars,” she said. “Yes. Every time I find one sitting on a windowsill, I know they could only come from you. They’ve always been my favorite. Strong and hardy, able to withstand the elements year ‘round…just like you. They only grow in the forest, too, which told me that’s where you must be. I considered sending out scouts to look for you but I knew if I forced you to return you would only leave again.”

  She reached up and cupped her daughter’s face in both hands “Oh, my dear Ilyssa...look at you! You’ve grown into such a beautiful woman. I’ve missed you so much, all these years!”

  Ilyssa covered one of her mother’s hands with her own. “I’ve missed you, too,” she said, fighting back her own tears. Seeing her mother cry threatened to tip her over that edge.

  “But you know why I left. I swore I would never go back, not until things changed.” She pulled her mother’s hands down and held them. “Those changes are about to begin.”

  The queen looked up the diadem her daughter wore. “Yes,” she said. “Your father was enraged when he heard. He threatened to dispatch his armies but his generals have all issued proclamations that they only serve the one who wears the diadem.”

  Her forehead creased with a gentle frown. “How did you even come by it, Ilyssa? Your father kept it so hidden, not even I knew its location!”

  Ilyssa hesitated before replying, “I got it from a woman named Karolyn.”

  Jessana’s eyes widened. “Karolyn!”

  “She claimed to have ties to the royal family,” Alaric provided. “It was our understanding that she had been married to your late son, Prince Selvin.”

  “Yes,” the queen said gravely. “She is my daughter-in-law, and the mother to my only grandchild.”

  “So Father did allow Selvin to marry a Werewolf!” Ilyssa said.

  Mother’s expression darkened. “That woman is no Werewolf,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Selvin had shared your views about the integration of Werewolves into Emberi,” Jessana said, looking at Ilyssa. “When people began to make accusations of inequality, your brother announced that he would dispel the rumors by taking a Werewolf as his wife. Karolyn seemed like such a wonderful person, at first, but shortly after the wedding I began to notice something unsettling about her. Whenever I would walk through the city with her and we would see a Werewolf in beast-form, Karolyn would become agitated, as though repulsed by the sight. To this date, I have never seen her change. Finally, I asked Selvin if he had ever seen her transform. He hadn’t. He would make excuses for her – and he continued to do so, even after Karolyn began to make their daughter wear a peculiar collar, silver with black moonstones.”

  “She wanted to control the child.”

  At the mention of the collar, Ilyssa saw Alaric rub his neck and immediately felt a rush of guilt, remembering how she had used one to subdue him.

  “She makes her wear it all the time,” Jessana said. “Chelle will cry and pull at it, wanting it off. Once, while I was playing with her in the gardens, I removed the wretched thing. Karolyn came out and saw what I’d done, and she became enraged. She told me if I ever undermine her parenting again, she’ll take Chelle away and I’ll never see her again.” Her eyes misted up again. “My granddaughter is miserable and there is nothing I can do about it.”

  “It sounds as though this Karolyn harbors a deep resentment for her own kind,” King Mardell said, coming down from the throne to stand with them. “While rare, it does occur. Werewolves who loathe what they are, and will go to any lengths to deny their true nature.”

  “What has Father said to this?” Ilyssa asked.

  Mother shook her head and averted her eyes. “What he always says,” she muttered. “Strangely enough, he gets on well with Karolyn. Probably because she hates Werewolves as much as he does. But he refers to Chelle as a ‘half-breed monster,’ and refuses to have anything to do with her. Selvin would argue with him all the time, telling him there had to be changes. He even accused him of driving you away.”

  “’You,’” Alaric breathed. He turned
to Ilyssa, staring at her as though he had just experienced an epiphany. “The other night, when we met with Karolyn, she sniffed and said ‘you.’ She recognized you.”

  “I don’t know how,” Ilyssa said. “I never met the woman before.”

  “Yes, but she knew your scent. It’s part of what ties you to your family, even when you’ve been apart from them for long periods of time.”

  “You still haven’t explained why Karolyn gave you the diadem,” Mother said.

  Ilyssa and Alaric exchanged looks. “She didn’t give it, precisely,” Ilyssa said. “She and Alaric had engaged in secret talks about uniting Emberi and Lobishome, and she claimed to have something which would ensure the kingdoms’ cooperation. As soon as I saw the diadem, I knew what she meant – but then Karolyn said there would never be a union, and that’s when she attacked.” Ilyssa touched the queen’s hand. “Karolyn is dead, Mother. She killed one of my friends and was about to do the same to me.”

  Jessana pressed her fingers to her mouth but could not stifle her gasp of horror. She looked at Alaric.

  “Did you kill her, to protect my Ilyssa?”

  “No,” Alaric said, “it was another man.” He cleared his throat and smiled. “Actually, Ilyssa saved my life.” He glanced down at bride-to-be. “For which I shall always be grateful.”

  “Clearly, Karolyn had her own agenda,” Ilyssa said. “Or at least one she shared with Father.”

  Reaching up, she removed the diadem. She held it in her hands, gazing down at the gleaming white stone set amidst the ancient markings.

  “This is supposed to give the wearer ultimate power, but it’s not strong enough to overcome my own father’s hatred. He still wants to attack Lobishome, and if he had his way he would wipe out every last Werewolf in the world.” She shook her head. “What’s the point of having something like this, if people are still able to resist? How do we know the peace we try to establish will even hold?”

  “The power isn’t in the diadem,” Mother said. Reaching out, she took the crown from her daughter’s hands. “It’s a symbol, and symbols are only as strong as the people who believe in them. Your brother believed, and he did what he could to change the world in his own way. His mistake had been in marrying a woman who lied to get what she wanted – in this case, a place in the royal family.”

  She paused, gently brushing her thumb across the diadem’s metal surface.

  “I never told anyone this, but I have long believed that Karolyn was responsible for Selvin’s death. They had gone out riding alone that day. Karolyn had said that a wild animal had attacked them while they had stopped along the river to rest. I saw his body and it always struck me as strange, the pattern of those deep claw marks, five lines in a row”

  She held up one of her hands, fingers splayed. “I always wondered what kind of ‘animal’ could make marks like that.”

  Remembering Kristof’s scars from his arena fighting days, Ilyssa felt fairly certain that Karolyn had killed Selvin, and that she had more than likely transformed to that part of her nature she had loathed so much in order to do it.

  “I am so sorry.”

  Ilyssa, Alaric, and Jessana all turned to Mardell. The Werewolf king looked distraught.

  “I have been standing here, listening to you,” he said, “and it has opened my eyes to my own failings. All my life, I have looked down on Humans as a subservient race, or as some bothersome obstacle to push aside as I made my way through this world. And it was wrong.”

  He focused on Jessana. “I hear you speak of your husband’s hatred toward his own grandchild, and I think he is the monster.”

  He shifted to Ilyssa. “When Alaric first brought this woman before me, my initial reaction was one of revulsion. I did not even want to imagine them having children.” He shook his head. “I have allowed my prejudices to rule my mind and heart for too long. I am old and but not so set in my ways that I cannot learn to open my heart, and I can tell you that it took meeting this young woman to set me on that path.” He clapped Alaric on the shoulder. “That’s why I give you my full support in this undertaking of peace, and reaffirm my blessings for your marriage.”

  Mother placed the diadem back on Ilyssa’s head. “If change is to happen, you and your husband will be the ones to do it. Become the symbol your brother had wanted to be. Show the world that Humans and Werewolves can live in harmony.”

  “But what about Father?” Ilyssa asked.

  “If I may be so bold as to borrow from King Mardell’s eloquent speech,” Jessana said, “your father is an old man who is set in his ways. Unfortunately, he will never change. But you must not let that stop you. You are the heir to the throne of Emberi. It is your birthright, and it is also your choice.” She took Ilyssa’s hands in hers. “This is a great burden but you have always been strong. You gave up the comforts of a palace in order to stand by your convictions.”

  She gave her daughter’s fingers a squeeze. “I believe in you.”

  Ilyssa smiled. Pulling away from her mother, she faced Alaric, who stood with his arms folded across his chest.

  “You’ve been strangely quiet,” she said, unable to resist giving his midsection a teasing poke. “What are you thinking?”

  Chuckling, Alaric took a step closer to her. “I’m thinking that you are a brave warrior and a beautiful spirit,” he said.

  He brought a hand up and trailed a fingertip along her jaw to her chin. “I’m also thinking how it will be a privilege to stand side by side with you, working to bring our people together.”

  “So,” she said, “you’re saying we should just stick with the original plan.”

  Alaric nodded. “Stick with the original plan.”

  Ilyssa shrugged and nodded. “I think we can do that.”

  Epilogue

  The kingdoms came alive with celebration on the day of Ilyssa and Alaric’s wedding. They held the ceremony in Lobishome before traveling to Emberi for the grand feast. By law, both sitting kings had to abdicate their thrones, passing their crowns and all titles to their newly married children. They could not be in two places at once, so they agreed to appoint a Prime Minister to govern in their stead. Ilyssa did not need to think twice about her candidate for the position.

  “Me?” Kristof said, nearly choking on his wine. They stood on the palace’s grand terrace overlooking the city and harbor. Everyone from the tribe had come in for the party including Marten, now fully recovered from his injuries. “You want me to be Prime Minister of Emberi?”

  “I can’t think of anyone I trust more,” Ilyssa said. Alaric cleared his throat loudly and she laughed. “Well, aside from this one.” She beamed. “I thought Barto would be suited for Ministry of Defense given his experience as a guardsman.”

  “You’ll probably have to talk to him about it after all the celebrations have died down,” Kristof said. “I think I saw him slip away an hour ago with at least two women.”

  “Two women?” Alaric raised his eyebrows in surprise. “I can barely handle one.” He tossed a playful wink at Ilyssa, who rolled her eyes and laughed.

  The most sobering moment of their union had come when Ilyssa had returned to Emberi for her coronation. For the first time in ten years, she had to stand face to face with her father.

  “It’s funny,” she had remarked. “As a little girl, I used to be so afraid of you. You were always so full of anger and hatred. By the time I left home, my fears had become disgust. And now?” She shook her head. “All I feel is pity for your ignorance.”

  King Willem had glowered at his daughter and only surviving child. “Mongrel lover,” he had said, and spat on the floor in front of her feet. “I would rather live in exile than in the world you and your beast husband will make.”

  “Your request will be honored.”

  Ilyssa had looked at him for a long moment, taking in the sight of this bitter, much older man. The ugliness he carried within for so long had aged him beyond his years, bowing his body so he could no longer stand up str
aight. Ilyssa had decided she would not follow him down that path. Instead, she had offered forgiveness.

  “I hope one day you’ll make peace with yourself, Father, and that you’ll find enlightenment during your exile.”

  And with that, she had walked away, leaving the guards to escort her father to the ship that would take him to the island home where he would live out the rest of his days. She had assured he would be comfortable, and treated with respect as a former king is due. After all, she had seen no reason to continue his legacy of cruelty.

  Now, as she looked around at the kingdom of her birth, Ilyssa smiled. She could not remember the last time she had seen Emberi so festive and full of joy. Hearing a little girl’s peals of laughter, she turned to see Jessana, now Queen Mother, clapping her hands in time with the music from a strolling minstrel. She had chosen to stay in Emberi, forsaking her own husband in order to raise their orphaned grandchild. Chelle skipped and danced around her grandmother, wearing a pretty dress and a crown of violets on her head. The collar her mother had forced her to wear for years had been removed. Now, she could be free to be herself – half-Human, half-Werewolf – without any fear of being judged for her dual nature.

  “So,” Ilyssa said, looking up at her new husband. She had to take a moment to admire him – not for the first time that day, and certainly not the last – resplendent in white with a blue sash to represent Lobishome, but with the addition of red and purple braided cords hanging from one epaulet to show his affiliation with Emberi.

  “What’s next for us? Did the prophecy have anything to say about what we’re supposed to do once we got married and united our people? Or did the ancients just leave those pages blank, allowing us to add to the story as we see fit?”

  “I suppose we could consider starting a family,” Alaric said thoughtfully. “Create a pack of our own.”

  “A pack?” Ilyssa let out an incredulous laugh. She brushed her hair back from her shoulder, little white Everstar blossoms tucked in among the waves. “How many babies are you expecting me to have?”