Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir

Chapter Three

The next day, Cassandra began to show Holly the intricacies of running the kingdom. She already knew most things that happened both inside of the castle and out—after all, she had grown up with her parents as king and queen. But there was a different sort of attention to be paid now that she would be the one at the head of the helm. She listened and watched and tried to make mental notes of the things that her mother was telling and showing to her. But much of it bored her as it had her mother.

“You are every bit my child,” Cassandra teased. “When I first had to come to the castle with your father and assume this role as queen, I dreaded it as much as the look on your face shows me that you do.”

“I don’t dread it,” Holly protested, and I am the one who wanted to take the throne. It’s just that some of it is so boring.”

Cassandra laughed. “Yes, some of it definitely is, and confining too. But you will find, as I did, that much of it is also rewarding beyond measure.”

Holly nodded, and they continued to see to various royal tasks for the rest of the morning. When the mundane duties were done, Holly quickly escaped to train with Theo in the courtyard. Fight training was one thing that Holly enjoyed tremendously, especially when she got to practice with her brother and show off her impressive fighting skills. Theo was a good fighter too, but Holly could still match him, and it made her feel good knowing that she was a force to be reckoned with.

“How is the new pack coming along?” she asked when they took a rest between matches.

“Good,” Theo answered. “And I am enjoying being an alpha. I can see why Father loved it so much. There is a sense of raw and pure allegiance that is like no other among the shifters. I hope to be able to be half as good an alpha as my father was.”

Holly smiled teasingly at him.

“Well, first, you need to be half as good a fighter,” she joked as she landed a shot while he was distracted.

“That was brutally unfair,” Theo laughed.

“I meant to ask you,” she said, trying not to draw too much attention to her intrigue, “are there any new shifters that have joined the packs recently?”

“New?” he asked. “Like the ones that came from that rival pack before I took it over?”

“No, newer than that.”

“No,” Theo answered. “Why?”

Holly went on to explain to him about the unknown shifter that sat alone in the tavern. She described his dark hair and striking blue eyes, and as much of his build as she could remember.

“No, definitely not a shifter that I know,” he said. “Weird. There are never wolf shifters that just ‘pass through.’ If there were any travelers, I would have known about it. The packs would be talking about a stranger in the forests. Are you sure it’s not one of Rubius’ pack members? Maybe you just don’t remember having seen him before?”

“I don’t think so,” Holly said as she shook her head. “I’d remember this guy’s look—and those eyes.”

Theo chuckled.

“Don’t tell me that a man has finally caught my sister’s eye now that she is queen and needs to focus on other things,” he teased.

“He didn’t catch my eye in that sort of way,” Holly lied defensively. “It merely caught my eye that he was a stranger and sitting all alone.”

“Sitting alone isn’t strange; you do it all the time.”

Holly ignored her brother’s remark and instead wondered more about the man.

“Is there such a thing as shifters who don’t belong to a pack?” she asked. The gears in her mind were turning, and she just couldn’t seem to let the subject of this man drop. “Ones who just keep to themselves and stay on their own?”

“No,” Theo answered with certainty. “There’s no such thing as rogue shifters. They wouldn’t survive on their own without a pack.”

“Why not?”

“Because being in the pack grants you the ability for enhanced senses, resources, and protections. Not only would a rogue shifter be defenseless against any pack that wanted to harm it, but it wouldn’t have the combined ability of an entire pack of shifters,” Theo answered.

“I can see how that would make things more difficult,” she said. “But it still sounds survivable.”

“I don’t think so. Besides, I’ve never even heard of or seen a shifter that hasn’t been a part of a pack. If such a thing existed, and shifters could survive on their own, then some of the members of the pack I took over would have just left. They stayed because they needed to be part of a pack.”

Holly thought about it and figured that Theo was right. He knew more about the pack system than she did, especially now that he was an alpha himself. They finished training, although Holly was more distracted now than before, which let Theo get a few good shots in. Then, after they were done, Holly went to shower off.

Inside her bedroom, there was a stone shower with a rustic, copper bathtub that had clawed feet at the bottom of it. After she showered, she filled the tub and sat in it, laying her head back against the side and wondering why she was having such difficulty not thinking about the man from the tavern. She needed to think about her new royal duties and about how she would win the hearts of the townspeople. She also needed to think about what she was going to do that would calm her nerves more so that she could look more the part of regal queen, and less the part of scared child.

When she was finished with her bath, she dried with a towel and went to stand in front of her open window to look out at the forest. She didn’t mind the cool breeze against her damp skin, nor the fact that she was naked in front of the opening for anyone to see. Her bedroom was on the side of the castle that faced out toward the forest and not in toward the city center. So if there even was anyone to see her, it would be from a distance. She was very much like her mother, loyal and committed to doing what was right for those around her, but also wild at heart, and she carried the constant burden of wanting to rebel and run at a moment’s notice.

She had been the one to want to rule, and now she had it. She had to turn it into something that would make her happy. But as she thought about her plans as queen, she also continued to think about the shifter at the tavern.

“I’ll go back there tomorrow,” she whispered to herself as she leaned her hands out the window to touch the cold bricks of the castle wall. “I’ll see if the shifter is there, and if he is, I will talk to him and find out who he is and what he’s doing here.”

Contented with her plan for the next day, Holly turned to walk back into her room and put some clothes on. By the time she finished dressing, her brother showed up to knock on her door.

“Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve asked around about your mysterious tavern friend,” he said once she had pulled the door open. “Not a single person knows who he is. Don’t you find that strange?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I do. That’s why I want to go back and talk to him and find out what he’s doing here. I’m going to go back to the tavern tomorrow to see if he is there.”

“Want me to come with you?” Theo asked protectively.

“No,” Holly chuckled. “Thank you, big brother, but I’m more worried about the humans than I am about a mysterious shifter hurting me.”

“Well, you don’t need to worry about the humans anymore, either. Rubius and I read them the riot act and threatened them with a very unpleasant demise if they ever disrespect you again.”

“My hero,” she said sarcastically.

“I’ve always got your back, sis,” Theo said before winking and then heading back down the hallway.

“I know you do,” Holly said aloud. She stood there in her empty bedroom for a minute, her wet hair dripping down the front of the nightgown she had just put on after her shower.