Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir
Chapter One
Aeron was happy and content. At least he seemed to be to anyone who was looking at him. Not even his wife, Cassandra, could tell that there was anything troubling him. As both an alpha and the King of Grenvich, it was Aeron’s job to make sure he portrayed a sense of calm and control, even if he felt like his own life was maddening. Duty and responsibility weren’t the only things that prompted him to retain a shroud of well-being - it was also simply in his nature to make sure that his family, his pack members, and the humans in his kingdom felt a sense of ease and confidence in him. He deeply loved his family, and his kingdom was at peace, so there were plenty of reasons for Aeron to have days unfettered by worry or discomfort. But seeing Cassandra with Rubius still hurt him, even if he didn’t show it.
As agreed, Cassandra remained his wife, and she remained living inside of the castle walls with him, only sneaking out on some nights to be with Rubius in the woods. Aeron and Cassandra were still close, and they worked together wonderfully both as parents and as rulers. But it was almost worse for him to have Cassandra within his reach and his daily sight, yet not be able to touch her, at least not in that way. He still felt deep down inside that he and Cassandra were fated to be together. It was a feeling that he had tried hard to shake once it was decided that she would be with Rubius. But no matter how hard he tried to put the thought of their love being woven into destiny itself—he couldn’t.
That wasn’t the only thing that weighed heavy on his thoughts. He was also troubled by his son Theo’s continued reluctance to rule. Theo had been decently handling the role of alpha for the small wolf pack that he had assumed after having killed their previous alpha. But the training toward kingship was not something that Theo embraced at all. In fact, Theo seemed to find every excuse to go off with his lovely wife, Marquette, and their new son instead of staying at the castle to learn how to be king. There was still plenty of time for that since Theo wouldn’t become King until after his father’s death, and shifters lived a long time, so Aeron tried not to worry about it too much as of yet. But he knew that someday, the time would come when the kingdom would fall to Theo, and Aeron felt that it was his responsibility to make sure that his son was ready—both for Theo and for the people of Grenvich.
The days seemed to blur together as Aeron went through the motions of king whilst also trying to ignore and suppress his own needs. Shoving the physical needs of a man out of mind was difficult enough, but trying to distract himself from the physical needs of his more powerful shifter side was nearly impossible. He found himself clenching his jaw if he happened to catch a glimpse of Cassandra getting changed in their bedroom and holding his breath if she stood too close to him while they were talking. She might not have the same urges toward him now that she was with Rubius, but Aeron couldn’t dismiss his needs as easily. He knew that he could mate with whoever he wanted to now, but the problem was that he still only wanted Cassandra.
* * *
“Open the gate, Theo!” Holly shouted at him from further down the corridor. “It’s storming outside, and someone is banging on it like crazy.”
“Why don’t you go and open it?” Theo shouted back.
“I’ll open it,” Aeron said as he walked past his two bickering children to the front entrance of the castle.
Cassandra was just walking up behind Aeron when he opened the door. The sight of the woman standing on the other side of it was startling. She was beautiful, and also extremely different.
“Come in,” Cassandra offered as she reached for the woman who was sopping wet and stared at them with exhausted eyes that were each a different color.
The woman’s long brown hair hung around her in wet strands that matted against her face and neck, and her clothes were so drenched that her dress looked like a translucent second-skin. Both Aeron and Cassandra walked the woman into the castle and sat her down at a table inside one of the great halls. Theo had already run off again to be with his wife and child, but Holly saw her mother and Aeron bring the woman inside, and the condition she was in, so she went to fetch some hot tea and food for the unexpected stranger.
“Who are you?” Cassandra asked as the woman sat shivering at the table, looking at them. “I don’t recognize you from our kingdom. Why have you come here, and especially in such a storm?”
Aeron watched the woman as she got ready to answer his wife. He was so struck by her eyes. One eye was a deep green that reminded him of the thickest part of moss in the deepest part of the forest. The other was a striking blue that looked like the sky illuminated on the night of a full moon. He had never seen anyone with eyes those colors, especially not one of each.
“My name is Samar,” the woman said.
She looked miserably cold and tired.
“I’m a refugee from the neighboring kingdom,” Samar continued.
“I had no idea that there was a neighboring kingdom,” Cassandra remarked as she looked over at Aeron.
“Yes,” he said in answer to his wife’s questioning glance. “There are a few. We just haven’t ventured out to them.”
Then he turned back to Samar.
“Why have you run from your own kingdom?” he asked her.
Before she could answer, Holly appeared with a tray of food and some hot tea that was spiked with liquor to help warm her.
“I am running from persecution,” Samar said as she quickly thanked Holly and then reached for the hot cup.
She gulped down the tea without any regard or reaction to it burning her throat and then sighed with satisfaction once the liquid started to warm her from the inside out. She reached next for a thick cut of meat that rested on the tray.
“Persecution from what?” Aeron asked.
“Let her eat first,” Cassandra said to him gently. “Poor thing looks half-starved and weary.
Samar gave Cassandra a timid smile before popping the meat into her mouth and reaching for another piece. Aeron stopped questioning the woman to let her recover from her journey to their kingdom, but he was starting to pick up on something strange about Samar.
“Is your kingdom a human city?” Aeron asked bluntly.
Both Cassandra and Holly shot him a look of shock.
“Of course,” Samar answered as she looked over at him with a mouthful of food. “What else would it possibly be?”
Cassandra laughed off her husband’s comment to draw attention away from the oddity of asking a human woman if her kingdom was comprised of other humans. Fortunately, Samar didn’t seem to think anything of it, aside from it being an awkward attempt at random conversation with a stranger. But Aeron caught sight of a tiny flicker in Samar’s eye when he asked the question. Before she answered, she seemed to have a look of understanding. He watched as she continued to eat and drink, and he listened as Cassandra told Samar some interesting, trivial things about the kingdom of Grenvich. He knew that once Samar had been fed and refreshed, that his wife would ask her more of the pressing questions about what she was doing here and why she had come. It wasn’t often that they received strangers from neighboring kingdoms. In fact, Aeron couldn’t remember a time when they ever had, at least not under his rule. But as he sat beside Cassandra and waited patiently for Samar to finish and be ready to talk more, he already distrusted her. Something about her that seemed “off.”
Aeron subtly called on his wolfish senses, enhanced by his alpha nature, and as his eyes began to give off a barely noticeable shifted glow, his keen senses kicked in. He looked at her bi-colored eyes and saw the same reflective golden glow looking back at him.
Samar wasn’t a human at all. She was a shifter, and she was lying.