Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir

Chapter One

After Aaron’s death, Holly grieved alongside Theo. To Holly, Aaron was every bit as much a father to her as Rubius. But now, her mother, Cassandra, had the overwhelming job of running the kingdom in the interim until one of her two children took the throne. Cassandra could have continued to rule as queen, but she didn’t want to. Now it was time for her to be able to roam free in the forest alongside Rubius, without the pressures of being the sovereign and sole ruler of Grenvich. And, it was better to have either Theo or Holly assume the throne now while the kingdom was already in a period of transition.

Holly could see Theo was torn. He didn’t want to be king, but he also didn’t want to disappoint his father, who he was sure was looking into this life from the next. Cassandra had already told him that it was okay for him to decline his claim to the throne. And Holly was ready to assume the role, or at least she thought she was.

During the time that Theo wavered about whether or not to assume his royal duty, Holly began to waver too. She was naturally inclined to leadership, and she embraced the idea of being queen, but she still feared that someday someone would find out about her illegitimate claim to the throne. With Aeron now dead, he wouldn’t be able to claim that Holly was his daughter—a lie, but one that he could claim without question and still be believed. She also feared that she would not be able to live up to Aaron's visions for the kingdom of Grenvich. Unlike her brother, who wanted to shirk the duties entirely and focus solely on his role as pack alpha and on his family with Marquette and their baby boy, Holly felt the pressure of wanting to preserve the integrity of the throne and the honor of the royal family.

So, while the two of them did some deep diving into their motivations, Cassandra kept things running smoothly as queen in the meantime.

“I don’t understand why you continue to torment yourself about this decision,” Holly said to her brother over breakfast. “You have said that you don’t want to be king, and both our mother and your father, while on his deathbed, have told you that’s okay.”

“I torment myself because I want to do what is right,” Theo answered her.

“Right for who?” she asked.

“Right for everyone—our family, the kingdom, the packs,” he answered.

“And you?” Holly asked.

“I matter less than the other things.”

Cassandra walked in at just that moment.

“That is not true,” she said as she came to sit down with them both at the table. “Your happiness matters every bit as much as the rest. An unhappy king cannot rule to the best of his ability.”

“Father wasn’t always happy,” Theo said.

“Your father was intrinsically happy,” Rubius said as he now came into the kitchen to join the others. He gave Cassandra a kiss on the cheek and held her hand in his as he sat beside her. “There may have been things that disturbed him, and things that troubled his mind, but Aeron was an innately happy king, and he died a happy man. That I can assure you of.”

Cassandra turned her face to smile at him. Rubius was right, Aeron had died in peace and fulfillment, and he knew that he was leaving his legacy in good hands.

“Give it thought,” Cassandra said to Theo. “But make haste. It is not good to leave the kingdom in flux for too long. Humans are strange creatures. Instead of seeking change and adventure, they seek the mundane security of knowing that things will stay the same. The longer that we take to instate whoever will be the permanent fixture on the throne, the more likely they are to become anxious and question it.”

“What if they question me?” Holly asked.

“Why would they question you?” Rubius asked his daughter. “You are the daughter to the king, and all of the people in this kingdom know and love you.”

“But that’s the thing,” she said with slight trepidation. “I am not the daughter of a king.”

“You are as far as everyone outside of this room believes,” her mother interjected. “And you are the daughter of a queen.”

Cassandra sipped her coffee and looked at her daughter inquisitively.

“Why are you now questioning the perception of your legitimacy?” she asked.

Holly laughed, but it was a nervous one.

“It is not just now,” she answered. “It has always been so. It just feels more real now that the possibility is mere moments away that I might actually be Queen of Grenvich.”

Cassandra reached out her hand to her daughter.

“If you are to be queen, then I can assure you that you will be the most capable, most compassionate, and most deserving queen that this kingdom has ever seen. Don’t ever think that isn’t true,” she said as she smiled at Holly.

“I agree with your mother,” Rubius said. “Besides, I may not be a king of humans, but I am still an alpha of shifters, which means that you have the ferocity of my blood running through you as well. You are more than capable of doing this job.”

Rubius looked between both Theo and Holly in turn.

“You both are,” he said with an encouraging nod.

With that reassurance in mind, Holly and her brother got up to go start their day. Holly acted mostly behind the scenes, working on some of the smaller tasks that she knew she could take care of without much fanfare, while Theo helped her mother. As much as she couldn’t shake the worry that if her secret ever got out, it would end the rule of the royal family, she also couldn’t shake the urge to think about all of the things she would do if she were queen.

At the end of the day, Theo found Holly in the stables, tending to her favorite horse.

“You do know that there are servants to do that, right?” her brother said.

“I know,” Holly answered. “But I find it calming to be with the horses. I wonder if Aeron’s horse misses him.”

Holly looked over toward the majestic black steed that was in a nearby stall.

“I’ll bet it does,” she mused.

“You’re avoiding dealing with your thoughts,” Theo said to her.

“So are you,” she teased with a small grin.

“Perhaps,” he said as he sat down on a bale of hay. “But I did give it all a lot of thought today, and I’ve come up with an answer to the questions that I’ve been asking myself.”

“Oh?” she said as she came to sit down atop the hay with him. “And you have a decision?”

“Yes,” he said. “And I think it’s the right one.”

He looked up at his sister.

“Between the two of us, you have always been the one better suited to rule the kingdom. We both know that.”

“It’s a lot to give up,” she said, looking at him.

“I don’t see it that way. I see it as giving me more time and focus on being alpha, which is something that I enjoy and am good at. I want to make my father proud, no matter where he is. And I think that the best way for me to do that is to be a great alpha for the packs that followed him in his life. We are both his children, Holly, whether biologically or not. And as such, I think it’s only right that we each take up one end of his legacy—I will rule the packs, and you will rule the kingdom.”

Holly nodded her head. She knew that this was what Aeron would have wanted, for them both to be happy, and for his kingdom and his packs to be well ruled by his children. They both sat in the stillness and quiet of the stable for a few moments, letting the realization sink in that their lives were changing, and their responsibilities were growing. But this felt like the right thing to do, for both of them.

“The heart-to-heart helped,” Holly smiled at her brother.

“Well, don’t get too used to it,” Theo said. “You know I don’t like getting gushy too much.”

Holly laughed as she threw her arm around her brother’s shoulder and gave him a hug.

“So it’s decided then, right? We can go back inside now and tell mother and Rubius?” he asked.

“Yes,” Holly nodded as they both stood up. “It’s decided. I will go ahead and take the crown.”

They walked back to the castle to tell Cassandra and Rubius that tomorrow would bring the beginning of a new rule.