Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir
Chapter Eleven
When the war came, it was only another day away. But they were ready.
As ready as they’d ever be.
Theo had spotted the opposing battalion coming across the hillside and positioning themselves on the open field between the castle grounds and the forest and had given the warning that the war would begin within the day. Aeron went up to the watchtower of the castle to see the approaching legion for himself. He was surprised to see that the force isn’t as large of a squad as they had been expecting.
“Where are the rest of them?” Aeron asked as Rubius came to join him and look out over the field. “I thought you said that they matched our numbers.”
“They do,” Rubius answered. “They must have left some of their people back at their kingdom.”
“Why would they do that?” Aeron asked. “What kind of strategy would that be to bring only part of your numbers to a war that you know you will be outmatched in?”
“I don’t know,” Rubius said as he shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Well, this time, I will not be fooled,” Aeron said as he rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “The last time we went running off toward battle, it was only a challenge between packs. And even then, we were outsmarted by a small and silent counterattack on the castle. This is on a much larger scale. It’s an entire war, with the opportunity for mass casualties. This time, we will leave enough of our people here to guard the castle as well. We will not be fooled for a second time.”
“Agreed,” Rubius said. “I’ll go assign some men to that task.”
He turned and walked back down into the castle to make the arrangements before preparing for the battle himself.
When they marched out to meet the battalion from the other kingdom, Aeron, Cassandra, and Rubius led the forces, with Theo and Holly by their sides. Rubius had already had some of his men take Samar and Marquette with her son to the deepest part of the forest where they would be well-hidden. As soon as his shifters had delivered them to the hiding spot, they would return to join the guard at the castle.
Samar had argued, of course. She asked what the point had been in training her if they were only going to hide her away in the forest? Aeron emphasized that she was too important to risk, and eventually, tearfully, she conceded.
They stopped their approach when they were within a reasonable distance of the other side. Aeron turned to Cassandra beside him.
“Their numbers are much smaller than we had expected,” he said to her quietly. “Perhaps this won’t be as dire a war as we had initially thought.”
“I’m still glad that we trained as much as we all did,” she answered. “It will help us to make this swift and lose as few lives as possible.”
“I still think we should stay sharp,” Rubius warned. “I’ve been thinking about it all morning, and there isn’t any advantage to them bringing lessened numbers to this war. I don’t know what they’re up to, but I think they’re up to something.”
“Agreed,” Aeron nodded.
He looked at both of his children to make sure they had heard Rubius’ message. Holly had the same look of determination on her face that Rubius had, the kind of look that can only be inherited through blood. Theo stared straight ahead at the enemy. He saw their alpha right out in front of their group. It was the alpha that most wanted Samar’s return. It was he who had given the order to declare war against Aeron and their kingdom. The alpha had a vile and cruel expression on his face. Theo could see it even from a distance. He looked like he was confident that he would catch and kill Samar today and be wearing one of her tails around his neck by morning. The thought of it made Theo furious. He hated men that thought they could do whatever they wanted with no regard to the freedoms of others.
“Easy, my son,” Aeron said as he reached over to put his hand on Theo’s shoulder. “Remember that you must stay focused. Half of the battle begins and ends in your mind.”
Theo nodded. He heard his father, and he knew Aeron was right.
Aeron watched carefully for the first signs of movement across the field. When he saw the alpha raise his fist ever so slightly in front of him, Aeron prepared to ready for battle. But just as he was about to lift his arm and signal their approach, something else caught his attention—smoke.
“Look, there!” Rubius shouted as soon as he noticed it as well.
Giant, billowing plumes of smoke were rising from the tops of the trees. Way too much smoke for it to be a bonfire.
“They’ve set the forest on fire!” Theo shouted.
As soon as the other legion heard Theo’s cries of alarm, they started to engage. Led by their alpha, who was wielding a giant ax over his head as he ran, they raced toward Aeron and his people.
“What do we do?” Cassandra said with a quick and panicked urgency. “We cannot let the forest burn while we fight. Marquette and Samar are in there. Our grandson is in there.”
Aeron heard his wife’s desperate voice, and he made a fast and dire decision. He turned to Rubius and shouted at him as he began to turn his horse away from the engagement and toward the forest.
“Lead the people here and finish this fight on the field,” Aeron told Rubius. “Instead of keeping the war on the battlefield, they’ve set the forest on fire to draw Samar out. I don’t know how they knew she was there, but they did.”
Rubius scowled.
“I think I know,” he growled. “But that is a matter to be dealt with later. Go! Save them. I will lead the forces here.”
Aeron motioned to Theo, who then pulled a few others with him and joined his father to race toward the burning forest. Aeron’s heart was pulled in two separate directions as behind him, his wife and the girl who was like a daughter to him fought alongside Rubius and the others to win the war. While ahead of him, he and his son raced into the burning forest to save the women they loved. Aeron’s chest ached with the thought that they might be too late, and that Marquette and her son, and Samar might already be hurt, or worse.
He glanced over at Theo as they rode as fast as the horses could carry them. Theo’s face showed no signs of fear or hesitation. His face showed only pure and unadulterated fury. He was racing toward Marquette and his son, and anything that stood in his way was game to be slaughtered.
Aeron glanced behind him as he held fast to the racing horse. The war was now fully engaged, and it was impossible to visually separate which side was which as all of the bodies on the field clashed and collided with each other. The sound of metal striking metal rang throughout the air. As soon as they entered the forest, the smoke clouded their view, but the horses seemed to know the way. They whinnied and buckled in fear, but they pressed ahead to carry Aeron and Theo toward the fire. There were no shifters in their path. It didn’t look as if any of the enemy pack had stuck around long enough to fight them. They must have just set the fire and left, and by the look of it, they must have set several fires to have created something of this magnitude.
As they closed in on where Samar and the others were, Aeron could start to see blue flames mingling with the amber ones.
“Samar,” he said. “She’s trying to put out the fire.”
“How can she do that?” Theo called to his father over the sound of the whinnying horses and the crackling flames.
“Kitsune magic,” Aeron answered. “She’s trying to save the forest.”
“Can she?”
They were almost there—so close.
“I don’t know. I’ve only seen her do a small flame. This is immense. The whole forest is burning down. I don’t know if she has enough power for that.”
As they neared the hiding place, the fire grew bigger, but so did the presence of the blue flames. Samar might not have been able to stop the fire entirely, but she was at least able to contain it from spreading past the area where it looked like it had been set. The amount of power and magic being used to combat a fire this size was immense, and Aeron just hoped that it wasn’t more than Samar could handle. He knew little about Kitsune and how their abilities worked. But one thing he remembered from the stories he had heard as a child was that the life of a Kitsune and their magic were inseparable.