Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir
Chapter Two
The ceremony that formalized the transfer of the throne was strictly ornamental and for the sole purpose of optics. There was nothing actually necessary to do for Holly to become queen, aside from Cassandra to step aside and let her daughter take the seat. But the traditional ceremony was a rite of passage for any new ruler, and it signaled a change in power to the humans of the kingdom. It was yet another thing that humans were strange about—the need to have some sort of visual representation that things were being changed.
So, they held a formal and regal ceremony just outside the castle's gates, which everyone in the kingdom was invited to attend. The event drew mostly humans to it, although there were a handful of shifters in attendance just out of mere curiosity to see what the ceremony entailed. Some of the shifters found it amusing to see what trivial things the humans held in such reverence, such as empty traditions that seemed to waste time more than anything else. Still, the ceremony was lovely, and the entire royal family was dressed in extravagant finery as they stood before the massive crowd. Rubius stood off to the side—watching. He was always carefully keeping an eye on his family, and now that Aeron was no longer among them, he felt his job as sole protector was even more important. Since Cassandra was a widow, and since she would not be ruling as queen after today, there was no reason to hide the fact that she and Rubius were together any longer. They could finally be free to love openly, which was perhaps the greatest reason Cassandra wanted to give up the throne.
Holly looked out over the crowd and felt the nerves claw at her insides. It wasn’t the size of the amassed people that worried her, or the formality of the ceremony that she was partaking in. It was the unstable undercurrent in the crowd. She glanced over at her father and could tell that he felt it too. There was a current of discontentment, maybe even resentment, that seemed to be growing amongst the humans like a swelling belly ache. Holly finished the ceremony, which included the acceptance of the Queen’s staff and then taking a seat in the throne—again, for optics. But while his daughter was trying to remain focused on her part to play, Rubius honed his focus on the growing pockets of discord amongst the crowd. The ceremony was being met with resistance by some in the kingdom who wanted Cassandra to remain in power, or who wanted Theo to be king. There were some small sects of townsfolk who didn’t take keenly to having the rambunctious and younger princess stake a claim on the rule of Grenvich. They saw no legitimate reason why the queen would be stepping aside for her daughter, or why the king’s oldest child—a son—would not be the one to assume the throne.
As the unrest began to get vocal, and some of the townsfolk began to voice chants of disapproval, Holly panicked. Cassandra put a hand on Holly’s wrist to calm her, knowing that not only would Rubius and Theo squelch any sort of harmful uprising, but that it was also important for her daughter to retain the appearance of being calm and in control.
But Holly, with her already nagging fears and insecurities about this, couldn’t quell her urge to get out from beneath the staring eyes of the increasingly agitated crowd of humans. As soon as Rubius began to walk toward a group of men that looked like a hunting party and Theo stepped down to join Rubius at his side, Holly took the moment to bail on her own ceremony.
Cassandra tried to call after her, but Holly was too quick and too determined to stop. Instead of chasing after her daughter, Cassandra remained calm and collected to temper the mood of the kingdom. She stepped down among the crowd to greet some people and talk about her excitement for her daughter’s rule. Much of the kingdom loved Cassandra and was therefore warmly accepting of what she had to say and shared in her support of her daughter. The small sects of townsfolk that were causing the trouble met with the quick wrath of Rubius and Theo, who threatened to take up their guards and have them thrown into the dungeons if they dared to speak against Holly again. It wasn’t that they were heavy-handed in their dominance over the humans, but they needed to make sure to keep the peace, and these groups of hunting parties were exactly the kind of people that would try to cause unnecessary trouble for humans and shifters alike. But even though it was easy for Rubius and Theo to immediately put an end to the trouble, Holly had already disappeared from the event entirely.
After Holly had gone back to her room and pulled her uncomfortable formal dress off as quickly as possible, she threw on casual clothes and a hooded cape to cover up her unmistakable reddish hair. Then she snuck out a side door of the castle and made her way down into the city where she found herself sitting at the tavern, drowning her grief over the loss of Aaron and silencing her worries about her now officially recognized rule with a large mug of ale.
Holly had always been headstrong and independent. She saw no point in trying to act the part of the docile princess. So although most princesses wouldn’t be hiding out in the tavern as their way to find comfort and solace, it was exactly what Holly needed. The tavern keeper was no stranger to the princess’s propensity for a good mug of ale. And even though he knew it was her, he never said a word about it to anyone.
While Holly was sitting there and keeping to herself, she spotted a man in the tavern corner doing the same. She could sense that he was a shifter. But she was sure that she had never seen him before, which was unusual since the royal family knew all of the shifters in the woods, even the ones who had come from other packs to join them. She watched the man for a few minutes in silence. He was strikingly handsome, with dark hair and wildly blue eyes. Something about him seemed to draw her attention and hold it.
“Would you like another?” the tavern keeper asked when he noticed Holly’s empty mug. His voice interrupted her thoughts, and she turned quickly to look at him.
“No, thank you,” she said. “This one did the trick.”
“It’s on the house,” he smiled.
When she went to turn her head back toward the strange and handsome shifter, he was already gone. She looked around the room, hoping to spot him, but he was nowhere in sight. Holly got up and left the tavern, still looking for the strange shifter on her walk back to the castle. But she made it all the way back to the front steps with no sign of him. She didn’t much feel like going back inside yet; in fact, what she really wanted to do was take a run in her shifted form. But she knew that she owed her family an explanation as to why she had ditched her ceremony and that delaying it would only make them worry. Besides, the hearty mug of ale had managed to take a bit of the edge off her temperament. She pulled her cloak tighter around her, not due to the cold, but more so the fact that it made her feel more secure.
When she got inside, she found Theo and her parents sitting in the throne room with ale of their own. She stood at the doorway and was getting ready to launch into her apology, but before she had gotten past the words I’m sorry, Cassandra put her hand up to her.
“No need,” she said. “We all understand what happened. Come join us for an ale.”
“I’ve already had one at the tavern,” Holly said.
Rubius laughed.
“I figured that’s where you would end up. Well then, join us for another,” he said.
Holly smiled, and when she sat down at the table, her brother put his arm around her shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” he smiled. “Rubius and I backed the naysayers down. You’ve got this.”
Rubius handed her a full mug, and instead of feeling the need to explain herself further, Holly enjoyed a round of good cheer with her family before the first day of her rule would arrive in the morning.