Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir
Chapter Fourteen
When Theo went to go speak with his father, Rubius was also in the room.
“Theo,” Aeron said. “Come in. Rubius and I were just deciding on strategy.”
“What have you decided?” Theo asked.
“We need to keep the conflict outside of the kingdom,” Rubius answered. “Obviously. So that the humans don’t find out who we are or what we’re doing. We’ll have the battle for power in the forest, and we can use my territory since it will be a more neutral field for both sides.”
“What will happen when the fight has a winner?” Theo asked.
Since nothing like this had happened before in his lifetime, he wasn’t entirely sure how it all would play out.
“Whoever’s side win’s the fight will retain the rule over the packs and the kingdom,” his father said. “And all claims over legitimacy will be dropped.”
“Those seem like big things at stake to be settled over just one fight,” Theo said. “I thought that you said the pack leadership and the rule over the kingdom were two separate things.”
“They are. But in this case, they are both tied to me. With matters such as these, they are a challenge to my rule in both places.”
“Will we win?” Theo asked. “Are the odds in our favor?”
“I can’t say for certain,” Aeron said. “But to better our odds, everyone must fight. Holly will be the only one to stay behind.”
“Why?” Theo asked. “She’s an excellent fighter and I’m sure she won’t be happy about being left out.”
“She’s not being left out,” Rubius said. “The castle will be unprotected while we are all off engaging in this battle. Holly will be the only one here to defend the castle and protect the people within it, should the rival pack try to do something underhanded and attack the kingdom in our absence.”
“Do you think they will?” Theo asked. “Because if so, then we need to have more than just Holly here.”
“Why?” Holly asked as she came into the room after having grabbed herself a cup of coffee. “Am I not good enough of a fighter for you now?” she teased.
“I don’t think that it is likely that they will attack the castle,” Aeron said. “Their alpha preaches about following the laws without question, so it would be extremely hypocritical for him to break the rules of engagement by launching some sort of sneaky attack on innocent people in the middle of a good-faith battle.
Theo knew that his father was right, but he still had a bad feeling about it. He usually had a strong sense of whether or not people would live by their own code, and the rival pack alpha didn’t seem like the kind of man that would. He seemed more like the kind of man that would do whatever was the most advantageous and instantly gratifying thing to do for himself.
* * *
When both sides met in the forest to resolve the conflict, the rules for the fight were clear. The pure-blooded pack was challenging Aeron’s pack, which meant that only those two packs could fight. As much as Rubius wanted to fight by Cassandra’s side, the rules prohibited it. So he was left instead to watch and make sure that the rival pack didn’t try to pull anything underhanded. Rubius had his own pack at the ready in the event that the rival pack did something outside the rules, and he would make sure that it was a fair fight. If Aeron’s pack emerged victorious, then the pure-blooded back would leave, and no more claims would be made. If they were able to defeat Aeron, then there would be a change in rulership. Fortunately, Aeron’s pack was one of the fiercest and most powerfully skilled in all of the forest, so the rival pack was easy to put down, and the battle would not last long before they could return to the castle and move on with matters.
But in the midst of the fight, as Aeron’s pack was winning, and the pure-blooded shifters were beginning to grumble about defeat as they watched their packmates fall one by one, one of them called something to another that caught Rubius’ ear.
“At least they will return to the surprise of defeat,” the pure-blooded shifter said.
Immediately, Rubius knew what that meant. The rival pack had played dirty, as expected. They didn’t want to win by the rules; they only wanted to make a point. They knew that they couldn’t defeat Aeron’s pack, so instead, they preyed on his weak spot.
Rubius gave his own pack the directive to jump in and finish the fight.
“What are you doing?” Aeron shouted at him, knowing that the interference by Rubius’ pack would forfeit their fight.
“This is not a fair fight,” Rubius said. “They’ve attacked the castle.”
“What?” Aeron shouted as he froze in his spot. He immediately thought about Holly and all of the humans sitting inside of his castle relatively defenseless. As king, he had made a critical error.
“I heard some of them speaking,” Rubius said as his pack took over the fight in Aeron’s place. “They have tricked us. They’ve sent shifters to the city to attack the castle while it sits unprotected.
Cassandra gasped in horror. “Holly!”
As soon as Theo heard what Rubius said, it felt as if all of the blood running through his veins had hardened into liquid metal. There was no word for the horrific rage and terror that began to consume him as he thought about his sister and Marquette under attack at the castle while they were played as fools. He took off running, leaping into the air and shifting before his four feet returned to the ground. He pushed his powerful canine body further than it had ever been pushed, to run faster than he had ever run. He sped over the ground with such speed that he barely touched it, and when he descended the hill that led from the forest to the castle, it was nearer to flying than running.
The rest of his family raced toward the castle as well, leaving Rubius’ pack to finish the fight, but none of them could even come close to matching Theo’s speed, which was driven by the pure urgency of fear and fury. Rubius came too and left specific directions for his pack to finish off the enemies. Normally, all lives would be spared once the winning pack was apparent and the other pack would concede. But not this time. This time, they were given specific instructions to kill all of the pure-blooded wolves that remained. Although there were more of the rival pack members back on their territory, the ones who hadn’t engaged in the fight, there would be little left alive to make any such challenge against anyone again after today.
As soon as Theo reached the city, he raced toward the castle with no concern about whether or not the humans saw the giant wolf running through the city. He didn’t shift back to a man because speed mattered more to him than anything else. He raced up the castle entry and then through its corridors, seeing some of the pure-blooded shifters who had been sent to execute the sneaky move. Theo ravaged them as he sped down the hallway, killing each one in sight as he looked for Holly and Marquette.
No wonder the pack that met them on the battlefield had been so small in number; there were at least a couple dozen of them here. Theo tore each of them to shreds and flung their limbs to the sides of the halls. Even when a few of them tried to stop him at once, his rage was too great and fueled him with the power to take them all down effortlessly without even slowing his pace. He ran through the castle, searching desperately for his sister and Marquette, and when he finally spotted Holly, he inhaled a huge breath through his snout that he hadn’t even realized he had been holding in. He ran toward her as she bravely tried to fight off several of the attackers who were trying to infiltrate the throne room, knocking the enemies down with his powerful stature as he barreled into the room and tore the heads from their bodies.