Her Royal Wolf: A Rejected Mates Romance (Fall Mountain Shifters Book 3)

by G. Bailey

  Not caring about our lack of clothes, I swim closer and wrap my arms around his neck, my legs around his waist, holding him. I don’t know how long it is, but the water almost feels warm when he holds me back and I finally breathe.

  “My cousin is all that is left of my family. We owned a drinking hut in the Fall Pack, and I grew up for the most part thinking that getting drunk was normal. We all did. My mother only went to the angel because she was pregnant and was worried drinking throughout her pregnancy might hurt me...so she tried to get help. That’s where her care for me ended.”

  My chest aches. “There was a fire, and they were all killed when I was ten...except for my cousin. Princess...” He pauses. “Every good memory I had was with you, my brothers, Baia and Reine. You were my family, and seeing him today, his hand around your throat—”

  “He is drunk,” I whisper. “I’m not defending his actions or what he called me, but he didn’t deserve to die for it. Killing what’s left of your family...I couldn’t let you have that on your soul.”

  Valentine looks down at me, finally meeting my gaze. “You don’t think less of me, knowing I was brought up by that? That I’m nothing more than a bastard born of a drunk? That the first thing I did when I got to this city, instead of looking for you, was to give up on life and dive into a bottle. I was a teenager, so drunk off my arse that I didn’t notice the river until I fell into it. I woke up here, and I swear I saw your face in the water, telling me to come for you. Begging me. You were being hurt in that pack, and I was here being a drunk. How can you even look at me?”

  “Val…no. I don’t think less of you because you suffered and fought your way out of it to come for me. You did find me,” I firmly say, frowning. “Gods, Valentine, I’m in love with you. I think I loved you even when you were drunk and lost and afraid. I will love you until there isn’t a star left in the sky to shine for us.”

  His lips fall on mine with a passion, a breaking passion that unlocks a dam of emotions between us. A wave of desire sparks everything to life, making me hyperaware of how hard he is, pressed against my stomach, and how much I want to be here with him. He kisses me until we forget the cold water, forget the guilt marking our souls for things we can’t change, and enjoy what we do have.

  Each other.

  Breelyn and Ragnar circle each other in the ring, wolves in every step they take. Brutal, harsh, and deadly. One weapon each was allowed, and the first one knocked out of the circle wins, like always. Every day we do this, and I’m proud of the fact Breelyn has turned into a warrior in her own right. She grips her chosen spear in her right hand, never taking her eyes off Ragnar. He has chosen a deadly axe, the bright blue dyed rim of the blade reflecting off the sunlight.

  Callahan leans forward on his knees, watching them closely as Breelyn strikes. She whips her body through the gap between her opponent and herself, and Ragnar blocks her spear with his axe, using his strength to push her back a few steps. She backflips out of the way, using the pressure of the axe and spear to gather momentum. Breelyn lands on Ragnar’s side, pulling her spear back and kicking at his leg. He takes the kick, wincing slightly, but within seconds he slams his axe down at her, enough force in the blow to knock Breelyn off her feet, and she lands just outside of the ring.

  We all clap and Callahan leans back as Ragnar walks to Breelyn, offering her his hand, and she accepts it.

  Callahan smiles. “Breelyn will make a strong omega. She is quick and smart with her attacks. If she could just control her blind spot...”

  I try not to smile at the frustration in his tone. Breelyn won’t speak to Callahan, not after they left the house, and whatever happened in there has made their dislike for each other into a spiralling fireball that no one can miss.

  “I will mention it,” I suggest. Callahan nods at me, his eyes clouded with something. I watch my friend for a moment, the tension in his body clear as he runs a hand through his hair. “Friends tell each other their worries. Just thought you’d like to know that little fact.”

  He chuckles softly, but it dies away in the stillness that follows. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Breelyn challenging Silas this time. She has a death wish. “My dreams have plagued me since I was young, warning me. Every dream of late...”

  He pauses to meet my gaze. “I see you at the foot of the throne, your back bare, and a whip coming down again and again. I’m unable to move, to save you, do anything but watch.”

  Dread settles into my bones, a touch of fear dotted into my chest. “Have your dreams ever come true?”

  He breathes out. “Once, yes.”

  I look over at my alphas standing around the circle, watching the fight. Silas and Breelyn aren’t fighting with weapons; instead, they have both shifted, claws and teeth in a mix of white and black fur. “Let’s hope your dreams are simply dreams, because since I got here, something has felt...”

  “Wrong,” he finishes my sentence. “I swore to protect you, and there is no one else I would serve, Mai. By my honour, I will find a way to prevent this dream.”

  “It’s a gift,” I tell him, clearing my throat and pushing down the lump of emotions. “To have such a power, Callahan. The gods have blessed you.”

  Breelyn’s wolf goes skidding out of the ring, a trickle of blood marking her white coat near her face. She growls in annoyance and looks up at me. I pat Callahan’s arm, hearing a possessive huff from Silas’s wolf echo around, and Callahan nods to me. Our conversation will stay between us, for now. I walk down the steps, getting ready to shift and train next when the doors to the training room are pulled open, and Alpha Reine walks in. Breelyn, Phim, Callahan, and the four guards in the room bow their heads. We do the same, out of respect.

  Alpha Reine looks at me. “The second rite starts now. You must come.”

  “That’s not right,” Phim exclaims, standing from her seat, the sword she was sharpening still in her hand. “We were told it happens in four days!”

  The guards behind Alpha Reine each pull their own swords out in response. Silas’s wolf walks to my side, Breelyn moves to my other while Valentine, Ragnar and Henderson walk closer.

  “Sit down, beta, before I make you,” Alpha Reine growls.

  “Seraphim,” Valentine warns. Phim looks to me, and I nod before she sits. The guards slide their swords back and stand in perfect formation once more. Valentine speaks before any of us can. “Why the sudden change?”

  “It is Mairin’s right to choose to come with me or not, Valentine. If she wishes not to enter, the price to the gods will be steep. They do not favour cowards—”

  “Careful,” Henderson warns, low and possessive.

  I shiver, even in the warm room. Alpha Reine and Henderson stare each other down for a long pause, a taste of dark shifter energy slipping into the room through the natural shadows and pits of darkness in every corner. The darkness isn’t natural, it’s from Hades, and I don’t know who is doing it with all the alphas here. The shadows are tinted red, and most people would fear it, but I will never fear their shadows. I’m not sure who looks away first as I glance at the shadows.

  “The rite will not be explained to any other, and each of my heirs are commanded to go to the temple, to pray to the gods above and below for the perfect alpha female to be chosen for you,” she replies, holding her head high, her eyes sparkling. “Come, Mairin Fall. Time is of the essence with today’s task.”

  “I am no coward,” I state, my voice colder than how she speaks to me. I know she has to remain impassive and cast no judgment or side with no female in the rite, but she was my mother’s best friend. She was part of my childhood, or so I’ve heard, and I wonder why she looks at me with such contempt, something bordering on hate.

  Alpha Reine turns and walks to the door, waiting still. I run my fingers through Silas’s fur and nod to Phim in the stands. Callahan catches my eye, and within his eyes, I know I have a friend who has my back, two omegas to stand with me when I might fall, and them—my alphas. They might be the f
our parts of Hades’s soul, but whatever is in their soul, I wish to stake a claim on it as much as they have claimed me.

  The rite is the last barrier in our way from diving into the storm waiting for us. A storm of darkness and light, a clash of our souls finding each other after so many years. Both in the mortal sense...but in the immortal too. We are gods, there is no point denying it, and I wonder what will become of our lives. Will we live past the others around us?

  I suck in a breath, holding my head high as I walk to Alpha Reine, the guards surrounding us. She walks ahead of me, out of the training room and down the corridor, past one full of books, and the soft sound of the castle creaking calms me. No one has told Alpha Reine or Alpha Soren about the secret room I found or Morganis, who is resting under my pillow. Sleep came easier last night, mostly because of Henderson sleeping next to me, but also knowing I am protected in more than one way. Morganis will help me defend myself, and there is no way the castle all but gave me that dagger for no reason. I am in danger. My senses aren’t wrong, and the castle is trying to show me. Help me. As we round a corner, I place my hand against the wall for a second, hoping the castle can understand my thanks.

  The guards open a large rosewood door with carved poppies and thorns making a ring shape in the middle. The one guard turns a large red metal key, while two others pull the heavy door as wide as they can. The inside lights up with fire, a thin channel of oil fire lining the corridor and turning at the end, suggesting a staircase in the darkness.

  “The guards will leave us,” Alpha Reine tells me when I don’t follow her in. Her eyes wander across my face, something flashing in her expression too quick for me to catch it, and she turns around. The guards keep their heads bowed, but I don’t miss the tension in their bodies, in their stance, as I follow the alpha female into the dimly lit stone corridor. The rocks are thick, moss clinging to the edges, and it smells damp, a musky old damp stench that’s hard to breathe through. My eyes adjust to the darkness well, better than they have before as I get to the corridor steps, a turning staircase going down deep into the earth. The smell gets better the lower we walk into the earth, even if the lack of air makes breathing a little harder. Eventually, at least a hundred steps later, the staircase comes to an end in a small room with four archways leading off to other corridors. The same oil-lit fires spread across the ceilings, and I wrap my arms around myself, my crop top and leggings doing nothing to wash away the chill.

  “I brought you here earlier than the rest,” Alpha Reine begins, “to give you a warning, something that may save your life.”

  I blink in surprise. “Why?”

  She turns back to me, a single name spoken, and it cuts deep. “Baia.”

  From the broken gaze of her own eyes, I know I’m not the only one who feels it. “Honour-bound are the ones you seek. Honour them and they will honour you back.”

  I hear footsteps, and Alpha Reine turns away from me. I whisper softly, “Thank you.”

  “It was not for you,” she curtly replies. “You are not your mother.”

  I gulp down the hurt that sentence implies as the other females appear on their own. Adira comes into view first, dressed to kill in various weapons and a leather outfit. She smirks at me when she notices I have no weapons. Tualla comes in next, as casually dressed as I am, with a sword in her hand. The last female, dark-haired with narrow eyes, is wearing a dress, but the hairpins in her hair bun look sharp. I notice right away that the females left are not from Adira’s group, and a thought shocks me, something I should have guessed. Adira manipulated them, getting the competition out of the way, and tricking them into thinking they were teaming up together on the first test. She was always out for herself. The test I thought I’d won, I’d been playing right into her hands.

  “Welcome,” Alpha Reine states, turning to face us. “This is the Sepulchre of the Gods.”

  We stay silent, but no one in this room, even the alpha female herself, is clear of a scent of fear. “Gods had many, many children with mortals over the years, and when the half mortal children died, or were murdered, their bodies were sent to the god of death. He built this place, locked their bodies into the walls, and poured dark magic into the ground, into the stone itself, so that the demi-gods’ souls could wander here, free to travel between the afterlife and mortal realm as long as they came back when he called.” She pauses when there is an echo from the Sepulchre, somewhere deep within, that gives me goose bumps. “The gods used to visit them until they all died, and of course, this place was left. The souls, with no god to keep them in the afterlife anymore, found a new way of existing. They didn’t have mortal bodies, so they shaped them from the river below and around the Sepulchre. We call these new creatures a new name, not mortal, not wolf, not soul, but something in-between the rules of nature. Naiads.”

  Tualla pales considerably, and even Adira looks wary. The other female takes two steps back, and in my ignorance of what they are, I keep my head high. “This test will honour the goddess Amphitrite, born of water and wife to Poseidon. Within the water, you will find a token, and to leave the Sepulchre, you must press it to your wrist to be given protection and be able to leave. There are only three tokens.”

  Only three?

  One of us isn’t leaving this place...and it won’t be me. I have to win this.

  She looks at each of us, her gaze on me a second longer, her sentence repeating in my mind like she spoke the words out loud. “May the gods protect you all.”

  Alpha Reine walks between us and up the steps, pausing and looking back. Her eyes glow red for a moment, and a stone wall slams down between us, locking us in. My heart pounds as Adira and Tualla run into two separate corridors, never looking back.

  The other female inclines her head before going down another corridor, her steps slower. I’m left with the furthest right corridor.

  I walk down it, my trainers slipping on the moss stone with each step. The corridor gets narrower, the light from the oil fire dimmer and casting darker shadows on the wall. I should have grabbed a weapon before leaving. It was foolish not to have.

  But...I am a weapon. My shifter energy is the way I can harness it and how it protects me. I need to learn more control, but every time I use it, it’s like my body knows. Like it’s an old dance and I’ve danced it my entire existence. Part of me knows, deep down, that it’s Persephone who knows how to use the shifter energy because it’s hers, and our souls are more connected, more than ever before.

  The corridor winds in a circle, the walls so tight that they brush my shoulders with every step before opening up into a square-shaped room. The walls of the room are filled with grave markings, the old language of the gods describing different names, but I know they are empty graves now. The souls of these magical beings left a long time ago. The brush of a footstep on dirt signals me that I’m not alone, and I twirl swiftly to see Tualla step out of a concealed archway behind what looks like a blank wall. She pauses as our eyes meet.

  “Seems we are on the same path,” she states, walking towards me.

  I take a step back, watching as she looks for another entrance. There is one opposite me, where I was heading, and the one I came through. Her eyes glitter like crystals. “We need not hunt each other when we are being hunted as we breathe. By the wolves, this test is not to take our own lives.”

  “Trust is hard in a rite like this,” I comment and look at the only entrance. “If you betray me, I will not hesitate.”

  “Neither will I,” she replies and walks to the exit. I pause for a moment before walking with her. This corridor is larger, and there is a sentence carved into a stone panel, right under the fire.

  “Death is an honour we gods are never gifted with. Born in magic, killed in sin, your souls will be free under the lost river of spirits.”

  “You can read the language of the old gods?” Tualla questions.

  I nod, well aware she can see me in the dim light. “Can you? With your markings?”

  “N
o,” she replies, solemn. “I tried for many years, but my tutor explained that only some ever learn and others do not.”

  “May I ask what your markings are for? The letters?” I question.

  Her eyes meet mine. “No.”

  I didn’t expect another answer, and I could almost laugh at myself for asking. A howl echoes through the air around us, something not human or wolf. A howl, like a whine, burns my ears as it gets louder and louder, and I touch my ear to feel blood pooling, dripping down my neck. I look at Tualla, and her ears bleed the same as mine.

  “They are using the noise to make our ears bleed,” she calmly states. “To hunt.”

  Silas’s training comes back to me, reminding me not to panic. I can’t think straight when I panic, and I can’t make a mistake like that right now. I look ahead, seeing the corridor in front of us is empty. In the distance, not too far, I scent the river, and something tells me that’s where we need to go.

  I run without warning Tualla, my trainers smacking against the dirt-covered stone as I skid to a halt at the end of the corridor, trusting my senses to tell me if anything is in the room ahead. This room has five archways, more of the carved graves, and I rush to the doors, scenting for the river. Tualla is quick on my heels, and without pausing or looking at me, she runs through the second door. Just as I notice something in the room.

  I spin around as a glowing blue creature, which could resemble a human body if it weren’t for the swirl of water instead of legs, looks at me with dead black eyes. I gag on the dead, rotting fish skin that covers the upper half of the Naiad’s body and face, shining parts of blue light peeking out between the scales of skin. Bones and hair stick out of the top of its head, some of the bones woven together and falling to the ground behind it. Two more Naiads join its side, both of them smaller, almost the size of a child and with far more scales covering them and no bones for hair.