by G. Bailey
Her Royal Wolf
Fall Mountain Shifters Series: Book Three
G. Bailey
Contents
Other Books by G. Bailey
Map
Description
Quote
Prologue
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
Epilogue
Author’s Note:
Her Guardians Series
Her Fate Series
Protected By Dragons Series
Lost Time Academy Series
The Demon Academy Series
Dark Angel Academy Series
Shadowborn Academy Series
Dark Fae Paranormal Prison Series
Saved By Pirates Series
The Marked Series
Holly Oak Academy Series
The Alpha Brothers Series
A Demon’s Fall Series
The Familiar Empire Series
From The Stars Series
The Forest Pack Series
The Secret Gods Prison Series
The Rejected Mate Series
Fall Mountain Shifters Series
Royal Reapers Academy Series
The Everlasting Curse Series
Her Royal Wolf 2021 (c) All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental and formed by this author’s imagination. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Design by Rebecca Frank
Edited by Polished Perfection
Created with Vellum
Map
My alphas have crowns…and if I can win the rite, so will I.
After arriving in Fall Mountain Pack, I found out all the secrets the alphas were forced to keep from me—and the terrible truths that came with them.
Along with what loving them will cost me.
The rite is a thousand-year-old test for the position of alpha female, and if I want to win it, I have to battle against wolves far stronger and more trained than I am.
The six instructions for the Forest Rite:
1.Once you enter, you can’t shift.
2.You can’t leave unless you win, not even in death.
3.Don’t look into the shadows.
4.If a path appears, take it at your own risk.
5.This is the forest of the gods. Pray to them for help.
6.Only one wolf leaves.
The alphas can’t save me now, and we aren’t alone in the city. The old gods are stirring, pulling themselves back into a world on the brink of war.
The angels are silent, including their king, which is strange.
Persephone and Hades’s love may have been written in the stars, but if I want my alphas, I have to fight.
And I will.
This is a full-length reverse harem romance novel full of sexy alpha males, steamy scenes, a strong heroine and a lot of sarcasm. Intended for 18+ readers.
Quote
A wolf is a wolf,
even in a cage,
even dressed in silk.
-Unknown
Oisean, Commander of the Angels
The sound of a new wolf baby cry echoes throughout the snow-ridden forest. Trees shake with the power of the cry, signifying one more wolf-born goddess is walking in the mortal world. Blood and the musky scent of the forest surround me, reminding me of my home. We have many trees and forests there, but our forests are coated in rich, deep and true power. The snow crunches under my feet as I walk to where the wolf babe is being held in white blankets, clung to by a blood-soaked female wolf.
I lean down, the female wolf looking up at me with fear.
“Wh-why are you here?” she croaks, holding her crying babe closer. I can’t see the babe’s face, but the cry is strong. The mother’s eyes are as dark as her skin and hair, quite beautiful, but she isn’t meant for this world much longer.
“You asked to be one of the chosen, and you lied to your pack about your connection to me. The eighth child should not exist, but I helped you. Your baby survived, thanks to me, and you know what we agreed,” I respond. Dealing with these wolves has been an annoyance. They are all too emotional.
“But I just gave birth to her! I wanted time, to nurse her, to tell her I love her!” she cries, trying to crawl away from me, marking the snow with her blood. “P-please! Please don’t take her yet. Please!”
I sigh as I take two steps closer and effortlessly rip the babe from her weak arms. She cries and claws at my legs as I spread my wings and float above her. “You stink of death, wolf. Be still as it claims you. Go with the honour you have brought a goddess into this world.”
She pauses in her wailing and looks up at me, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I curse you to a life of misery and death, winged one. I curse you with my life.”
I smile. “Your daughter is the goddess witch, not you, and she is only ever going to know I am her father.”
“You are not her father,” she sneers.
“Maybe not in blood, but such things have never counted for me.”
The babe cries in my arms, and I push some of the blankets back, her honey-orange eyes looking up at me with the innocence only a babe could have. A new goddess, one I can keep for myself, train to be my secret witch in the war to come between the gods. They are all here now, in the mortal realm, and my task has just begun.
As the babe settles, I look down at the female wolf, who is silent in a pool of her own blood. Death has claimed the wolf, and I claim Medea, the babe, my witch goddess. My goddess of illusion.
Together, we will rule this mortal realm.
My gods, I knew nothing.
I guessed nothing like what the truth really is.
Fall Mountain Pack isn’t the smallest pack in the world, like I was taught, but instead, it’s the largest and most powerful. Millions of wolves live in the city in front of me, a whole pack that the wolves of the Ravensword Pack could never even imagine exist. Since learning about the angels and seeing the world outside when we were on the train, I always assumed the angels were the ones ruling the world and they could never be challenged.
But, looking over at this city, I’m not so sure anymore. Everything that has happened to me—being rejected by the alpha of Ravensword and thrown to sea, surviving that to find my alphas, then learning that we knew each other all along and they had been looking for me—all of it has led me to this point, to this city, to my people. My wolves. My alphas.
The grass crunches under our feet as we walk down the hill, surrounded by enormous black wolves. My eyes watch the red cloaks of the alphas of Fall Mountain Pack, the red fabric stroking the grass as they walk in front of us. Valentine and Silas are close, on either side of me, their arms brushing me every so often, comforting me.
“You were bound
not to tell me anything about this pack,” I say. My statement doesn’t need an answer. I know I’m right.
“Yes—”
“I bound them with blood, forbidding any conversation about this pack. It is the same blood-bound promise any wolf makes who leaves. Our city is our secret for a good reason,” Alpha Reine interrupts, looking back at me, and then pauses. “And any conversations like this should be done in private. We have a reputation to uphold, Mai.”
The sternness of her voice, the power behind it, makes me want to bow my head. I feel the pressure of her gaze as we stare each other down, and my body starts to shake, a feral growl slipping from my lips. She growls right back, her eyes bleeding to a blood shade of red.
“Mai—” Valentine steps in front of me, placing his hands on my shoulders. I immediately snap out of it, the trance I was just in, and shake my head.
“I don’t know what just happened,” I whisper.
“Young wolf,” Reine huffs. “But such power. The rite is going to be very interesting.”
Valentine and Silas both tense, and it only makes me more nervous of what I’ve just signed myself up for.
“Wait for me!” Trey shouts, and I look up to see Trey running down the hill.
“Who is the boy?” Reine asks, walking to Valentine’s side. I keep my eyes from hers, not wanting a repeat of what just happened. Trey crashes into our group, brushing back his blond hair, his cornflower blue eyes looking between us all.
Phim places her hands on his shoulders, but Silas speaks. “Trey is our ward, who we have raised.”
Soren walks to Reine’s side, glancing at Trey. “How old is the boy?”
“Ten,” Trey answers. “But I look older.”
“That you do. You are tall for your age,” Reine comments, smiling his way and looking up at her mate. Something silent passes between them, and he walks away before she looks to us. “Some wolf children grow faster than humans, after all. Some do not.”
“Trey certainly has done,” Valentine agrees.
“As our ward, he will be staying with us,” Silas states, his tone offering no room for argument.
“I look forward to learning all about you, Trey Fall,” Reine softly tells him before turning away and continuing her descent down the hill, walking easily between the many ragged, moss-covered rocks.
It takes a while for all of us to get down the mountain, and the whole time, I’m aware of Silas’s and Valentine’s gazes on me, watching my reactions to this city, to their pack and the secret they were forced to keep from me. The reason why they always hold back, never tell me how they feel, makes so much more sense now. They have a duty to this pack, to be alphas, and this rite means they can’t choose their own mate.
But I know, deep down, how I feel. I think I might know how they feel, and finally I have some answers. We eventually come off the hill and onto brick-laid streets and pathways, lined with small houses. It’s staggeringly beautiful. The crater walls that make the hills cast deep shadows down on the city, and where the sun does touch, it highlights how lovely it is. Every house on the row in front of us is made of golden brown bricks with white roofs and sweet little white windows with different coloured flowers hanging out of them. The wooden doors have the mark on my hand drawn into the wood, each one painted in a different way, but it’s all the same symbol. It’s their symbol for Fall Mountain Pack, I realise. I turn my hand around, looking at the mark there. I have so many marks now, starting with the moon marks on my back, the pomegranate and vipers on my arm and now this on my hand. My marks are my story painted on my body, and I never want it to end.
Marks have meaning, marks have power.
I lower my hand and look once more at the city I now call home, a place I am meant to feel safe.
Each house has its own little picket-fenced garden in front of the door, filled with beds of plants and fruits, some with people in their gardens, enjoying the beaming sun shining down on us. Two little girls in soft cherry dresses run through the gap between the houses, their laugh making my lips tilt up. The roads, the streets even, have beautiful crystal street lamps lining the edges, and I can scent nothing but wolves, the distant forest, and fresh, clean air. It’s effortlessly peaceful here, untouched by the brutal world outside. A place the Levi hasn’t destroyed, humans never found, and the angels haven’t ruined.
I know why my four alphas call this home, why they never spoke a word of it, blood-bound or not. This place is worth protecting with my life. So are the people. They are happy, content, and most importantly, innocent.
For a while, I just take it all in, the beauty of the city, of everything stretched in front of me down this one road and strip of homes. This is only an inch of the city, but it’s so different, so unusual compared to everything I’ve seen in my life. The pack in Ireland was close to this, but on a smaller scale and not as hidden. Ravensword was never this quiet, never this calm.
The city is calm.
“What do you think?” Valentine questions. Reine looks my way, as does her mate, waiting for my answer.
“I have a lot of questions...but this pack is incredible from where I’m standing. I see why this is home,” I say.
“We will answer anything you wish now,” Silas tells me. “Anything, Mai. We told you, once we got to the city, there would be no secrets. That is true.”
I look into his winter grey eyes that seem lighter now. His moon mark on his neck looks darker in comparison, and I can’t handle the pressure of his gaze for long before I need to turn away. “Why do I have this mark on my hand?”
“Every wolf who enters our pack lands is marked. Even the angel was presented with a mark,” Alpha Soren answers. “It’s a safeguard. You won’t be able to speak of the city when you leave unless I allow it.”
“The rest of your questions will have to wait until we are inside our castle,” Alpha Reine interrupts, “as I have many questions myself, for all of you.”
She gives Valentine and Silas a pointed look.
I’m almost thankful for the interruption, as everything feels a little overwhelming, too much to take in at once. My questions can wait; I trust my alphas.
I trust myself, and this pack feels like nowhere I’ve been before. The land is seeping with shifter energy, and it’s enough to make me feel dizzy.
Valentine, picking up on my nervous energy, ever so softly links his fingers through mine as he holds my hand. His warm hand gives me a little more strength, and I make sure to hold my head high. I look up to see Alpha Reine staring at us, or more at our hands joined, before turning away to no doubt hide her reaction. I did notice the look she gave me, the one that suggested she isn’t overly impressed.
I hear the sound of the horses before I see them in the distance, gigantic black-haired horses running towards us down the path, while people move out of the way. The horses are twice the size of me, galloping so fast I wonder if they can stop in time. The four horses are pulling along a mammoth-sized carriage behind them. The carriage is lit up inside but appears older, making me frown as I wonder who made it.
“We mix some of the human technology with our own. Our engineers are quite extraordinary,” Alpha Soren states. “Are you interested in the making of cars and carriages, among other things?”
“Of course she isn’t, dear,” Alpha Reine hushes him.
“I have watched Ragnar in his garage many times, and he showed me how some of it works. It’s very interesting, but I prefer to have my head in books or training with Silas,” I say.
Silas chuckles. “Sure you do. The many curse words you throw my way during training suggest you love it dearly.”
My cheeks redden as he winks at me, and Valentine chuckles. Even Alpha Reine and Alpha Soren look amused for a moment before they both turn away. I glance back at Trey, Phim and Adira, who are staring at the city in awe. Adira looks away from the city, probably sensing my gaze, and her robin egg blue eyes fall on me. She smiles at me, a smile full of malicious intent.
I
smile back, baring my teeth a little, before looking away. She is a snake, and we just let her into a wolf den. I’m determined the only one who is going to get hurt is her.
“It is good to have you home,” Alpha Reine says, looking at Valentine and Silas and then finally on the rest of us. We don’t get the same warm greeting, but I do understand. She doesn’t know who we are anymore, as we have changed from children. And she doesn’t know much about Phim and Trey at all. I imagine, as alpha female of this huge pack, she has had to make herself strong and become careful of who she trusts.
The carriage stops in front of us, and I stare up at the magnificent horses, admiring their soft coats and long manes. Within the braids of each horse’s mane are silver upside-down mountain clips that catch the sunlight.