Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir
Chapter Eighteen
Aeron and Theo went to check on the new pack members that had been acquired at the battle. There were only a few females and a few elderly shifters, along with a couple of young pups. Theo had helped to get them settled and trained in the ways of his pack, and Rubius had also been helping to keep an eye on them in the woods. They all seemed benign enough, and although they might not have been the most eager of the new recruits, none of them seemed to object to being there. Theo actually felt as though they preferred it to having been under the leadership of their last power-hungry alpha.
They walked among the pack members and talked to them a bit to see how they were adjusting to the newcomers, and how the new shifters were fitting in with the rest. Aeron noticed that there was one female in particular that seemed to be watching him and bristled every time he came anywhere near her. He thought it was strange behavior, and although he chalked it up to probably being nothing, he couldn’t help but notice that she never took her eyes off of him. He left his son’s side for a minute to go and talk to her. He wanted to try to have a conversation with her and maybe see if there was something wrong in order to head off any trouble that she might cause.
“Hello,” he said as he walked up to her.
She eyed him as if she was both predator and prey and didn’t respond to his greeting at all.
“I can’t help but notice that you seem pretty hostile toward me. Do you know who I am?”
Aeron thought that maybe she knew he was the alpha over all the packs, and the king, and that maybe her experience with her previous alpha had left a bitter taste in her mouth toward those in positions of authority.
“Yes,” the woman said with a voice full of poisonous hatred. “I know who you are, King Aeron. You are the man who killed my mate. I watched you on the battlefield as you tore him to pieces with your shiny sword. I watched as you slaughtered many of my pack mates. Tell me, why didn’t you kill me as well?”
“I am sorry about your loss,” Aeron said. “But if I killed your mate, it was because he was fighting against us. If you are alive to speak of this now, that means that you were not. It means that you pledged your loyalty to me.”
“I wish you had killed me,” she said. The fervent look in her eyes was alarming for such a small and pretty face. “You should have.”
Aeron made one last attempt to try to help the woman, even though she was likely unreachable. He thought that he owed it to everyone who had fought in the wars alongside him to try to make peace a permanent fixture amongst all that had survived. He reached his left arm up to put onto her shoulder in a gesture of goodwill.
“I, too, know about loss. I lost the woman that I loved at the hands of your previous alpha. And I can only tell you this – your life now must look ahead and not behind. If not for you, then for your fallen mate.”
“You do not know my pain,” she growled. “That Kitsune was not a mate – she was a devil-fox.”
Suddenly, Aeron realized that this was the threat Samar had warned him about. This woman was the danger. But before he was even fast enough to withdraw his hand from her shoulder, the woman plunged a silver dagger into his heart.
Aeron made an involuntary howl that rang throughout the forest when the tip of the metal pierced his heart, and Theo turned quickly to see what had happened. Immediately, Theo shifted and descended upon the woman, tearing her to pieces with his teeth. In all of the times that Theo had lost control before, none were ever as intense as this. After he had instantly killed the woman, he shifted back to a man and lifted his father. Without a moment’s hesitation, he returned Aeron to the castle, urging his steed to push faster than it had ever run before in an attempt to save his father’s life.
As soon as he got to the castle gates, Theo leaped off his horse, still holding his father’s massive body in his arms, and kicked open the castle doors. Once inside, he shouted for his mother and sister to come. The two women instantly appeared in the corridor and ran toward him. Only a few seconds after, Rubius ran through the front gate, still in wolf form until he got inside and shifted back to a man.
“I heard the howl in the forest and came as fast as I could,” Rubius said as he took Aeron from Theo’s arms and carried him into his bedroom. “What happened to him?”
“One of the females from the other kingdom attacked him. He didn’t see it coming. He was only trying to help her,” Theo said. “I’m going to kill them all.”
Marquette came just as Theo started to surge with fury. She could see the terrified look in his eyes and then saw King Aeron lying on the bed with the silver dagger still protruding from his chest. She tried to calm Theo and told him that vengeance would not do his father any good right now. Right now, Theo had to be calm and stay at Aeron’s side with the rest of his family.
Holly grabbed onto her father and buried her head against Rubius’ chest. Aeron was like a second father to her, and she started to cry, thinking about the possibility that he might be mortally wounded. Cassandra was equally as horrified, but she had the weight of queendom, which had taught her to save the luxury of emotions for after the crucial moments of action were needed. She stood beside the bed, and Rubius came to stand beside her, handing Holly off to her brother.
“I’m going to pull the dagger out,” Rubius said to her as Aeron waned in and out of consciousness.
“But won’t that kill him?” she asked. “If you remove the dagger, he will bleed out too quickly.”
“What do you want to do then?” he asked her. “We can’t just leave the dagger in his chest.”
“I don’t think you have much of a choice,” Aeron coughed as he opened his eyes again.
Cassandra looked down at him as tears began to stream down her face.
“I can feel it,” Aeron said as he strained to speak. “I can feel the dagger wedged inside my body and my heart trying to beat around it. This is not something I will survive, and there is nothing any of you can do. The moment you pull the dagger out, I will die.”
Holly burst into tears, and even Theo started to silently cry.
“Leave the dagger and let it give me the precious moments that I have to speak to each of you.”
Rubius nodded and then bent down over the bed to put his forehead up against Aeron’s. He didn’t need to say anything – Aeron already knew that he was saying goodbye to his friend. Then Rubius gave Cassandra a sympathetic look and went to take Marquette out of the room with him so that Aeron could have his last few moments alone with his wife and children, including Holly, who felt as much like a daughter to Aeron as if she were his own.
Holly hugged him gently and kissed his cheek as the saltiness of her tears ran onto her lips.
“You, my daughter, are brave and fierce, and quite possibly stronger than all of us put together. Always remember that your strength comes from in here,” Aeron said as he pointed first to her heart and then to her head. “And, in here.”
She sobbed over her words and told him that she loved him, and then Cassandra led her out of the room to where Rubius was waiting so that he could comfort his daughter and Theo could have a moment with his dying father alone.
“You must now assume the role of alpha and of king, my son,” Aeron said.
Theo tried to be strong and have courage. He tried not to cry, but he couldn’t help it. He broke down into sobs as much as his sister had because Aeron was not only his father, but also his best friend and mentor, and he couldn’t imagine doing any of what would be necessary without his father’s guidance.
“I promise that I will make you proud, Father,” Theo said through his sniffling.
“I believe that you will,” Aeron smiled. “I know that you can do everything that you will want and need to do. I have faith in you, Theo.”
Theo bent down to hug his father and pressed his forehead to Aeron’s. Then, with tears in his eyes, he looked at both of his parents sadly and walked out of the room, where Marquette immediately wrapped her arms around him.
When it was just Cassandra alone in the room, she closed the door and climbed into the bed to lie down next to her dying husband.