Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir

Chapter Five

When Holly and Theo went into the forest to deliver some things to Rubius and the packs for Yule, she spent some time talking with her father while Theo mingled with the shifters and checked on his pack.

“You seem distracted today,” Rubius said when he noticed Holly sigh for about the fourth time. “I’m curious,” she said.

“About what?”

“About a shifter that I saw in the city.”

“One of mine?”

“No,” she answered.

“One of Theo’s packs?” her father asked.

“No. That’s the part that I’m curious about,” Holly said. “I asked Theo about it, and he said that there are no such things as rogue shifters that don’t belong to any pack. Is that true?”

“Not necessarily true,” Rubius answered.

Holly’s interest was immediately piqued.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Well, although they are uncommon, rogue wolf shifters do exist without a pack, and in fact, I used to be one myself,” Rubius said.

“What? Really?”

“Yes,” he chuckled. “Long before I met your mother, and long before I joined a pack, and then ended up eventually leading a pack, I was completely solitary and on my own.”

“But why?” Holly asked in amazement. “Theo said that without a pack, a lone shifter wouldn’t survive. I knew he was full of crap about that part, though. It didn’t seem to be a matter of survival, just maybe a matter of things being more difficult.”

“Oh, they were definitely more difficult,” Rubius smiled as if recalling a fond memory. “But also much more rewarding. It’s not easy being on your own without a pack, that’s for damn sure. But there are advantages and disadvantages to everything.”

“Did you choose to be alone?”

“Yes.”

Rubius stopped unloading the provisions that Holly and Theo had brought to him and took a seat down on a fallen tree trunk next to his daughter.

“When I was your brother’s age, I belonged to the same pack that my mother and father did. There was a lot of strife in that pack, constantly a new alpha, and frequently a challenge to whomever was the current one. When my father ended up being the alpha, our small family was put under tremendous scrutiny. It got to the point that my mother felt as if she couldn’t even breathe without being watched. Eventually, she couldn’t take it anymore, and she ran off. I never heard from her after that.”

“I’m so sorry,” Holly said. “That’s terrible.”

“No, actually, it wasn’t.”

She looked at her father in utter confusion, not understanding how the loss of a mother could possibly be a good thing.

“For a hot minute, I was furious with my mother for leaving me behind, and then after that, I was hurt. But not long after those emotions had passed, I realized that she was showing me something. My mother was showing me that I didn’t need anyone. I didn’t need my parents or my pack; the only one I needed was myself. Shortly after, I left my pack.”

“Your father just let you?” Holly asked.

“Oh, no,” Rubius laughed. “He wasn’t the kind of man that would just let me do anything. I waited until he was off with a group of pack members, and then I ran as fast and as far as I could. When I eventually stopped running, I set up my own den and I began to forage and hunt. At first, it was difficult. There is a very steep learning curve to having nothing and no one to depend on besides yourself. But once I had figured out shelter and food, I was pretty much good to go.”

“Did you ever get lonely?”

“No, never. I was so happy to have freedom that I cherished every moment of my days as a loner.”

“Then what made you go back to pack life?” she asked.

“That was a bit more difficult of a decision. I had heard word in the forest that my father had been killed and a new shifter had taken the role of alpha. Had it been that alone, I likely wouldn’t have gone back. But word had reached my mother as well, and for whatever reason, she couldn’t stay away without coming to see with her own eyes that it was true and that my father really was dead. When she returned, merely to see that her mate was no longer alive, the new alpha killed her. There was no reason for that, aside from cruelty and a wicked heart. I struggled with it for a day or so, then I realized that I couldn’t let my parents’ deaths go in vain, and that I couldn’t let the other pack members that I had grown up with live beneath the rule of such a cruel alpha. So, I went back, challenged the alpha, and killed him. That became my first pack.”

Holly’s mouth hung open in astonishment.

“Did any of them ever try to challenge you?” she asked.

“Yes, all the time,” Rubius answered. “But as you can see by the fact that I am still alpha, none of them ever succeeded. After a while, they stopped trying to challenge me altogether. And since then, I have ruled with a fair hand and kept peace within my pack.”

“That is truly an impressive story,” Holly said in awe.

“Well, I didn’t tell it to impress you,” Rubius chuckled before taking a more serious tone. “I told it to you so that you would know that rogue shifters have usually chosen that path in life because they have experienced something horrible, and rather than stay within a horrible situation, they choose to be alone.”

Holly was fascinated and was starting to become almost a little obsessed with wanting to talk to the lone shifter from the tavern and hear what his backstory was.

“Whoever this mystery shifter of yours is,” Rubius said, “I am sure that he has a good reason for why he isn’t in a pack. And to be honest, he probably just wants to be left alone and unbothered.”

The corners of Holly’s mouth formed into a slight pout.

“But you didn’t want to stay unbothered,” she reminded him. “You became an alpha, and then you met Mother and fell in love. You have a whole pack and a whole family now.”

“True,” he said. “And I wouldn’t change any of it for anything in the world. But not every lone shifter is the same, and none of us have gone through an identical experience. If this man that you have seen is shying away from you and everyone else, you can trust that it is probably for good reason.”

Holly nodded and thanked her father for the insight. The things that he said made sense, and she knew that he was probably right. The shifter at the tavern most likely wanted nothing to do with Holly, or anyone for that matter. Yet she couldn’t help herself. She had to see if she could talk to him.

Over the course of the next few days, Holly visited the tavern several times, making up new excuses each time so people didn’t start to think that she had a drinking problem. But each time she went, the man was never there. She began to think that maybe he had moved on to some other city or forest. But just as she was about to give up hope and was sitting at the bar talking with the tavern keeper about the upcoming feast at the castle—the man appeared. He sat down at the same table in the same corner, and the barmaid brought him an ale, which he drank within minutes. The tavern keeper poured another mug of ale, and as soon as Holly saw the barmaid come to take it from him and deliver it to the shifter, she intercepted it.

“I’ll take it to him,” she said with a smile. “He’s a friend of mine.”

The barmaid handed the mug over and went back to doling out more ale to other customers as Holly balanced the heavy and overfilled mug and walked toward the corner table where the shifter was sitting. For a second, he looked at her in confusion as if he was wondering why she was walking his way and had his mug of ale. But then his eyes widened as he seemed to realize that Holly was coming to talk to him, and he immediately got up and headed toward the door. Holly handed the mug of ale to the closest person and darted after the mysterious shifter. This time, she was not going to let him get away.