Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir
Chapter Seven
“Hello,” Holly said with a smile, trying to make the interaction between her and the band of human hunters as casual and amicable as possible in the hope that it would persuade them just to let her pass unharmed.
“What are you doing out here?” one of them asked her.
She could tell by his abrupt and accusatory tone of voice that they had no respect for her position as queen. In fact, if memory served, these men were among those that protested at her crowning ceremony. They were in the group of men that Rubius and Theo had to quell with threats of consequence and punishment if they raised a hand against their new queen. A foreboding feeling crept over her.
“I was going for a walk,” she lied.
“In the forest alone?” another one of the men asked. This one grinned as he asked the question, which made it even creepier. His crooked teeth shone through the slit of his smile.
“I am not alone,” she said. “My brother is nearby.”
“That’s not true,” the man said. “We just saw Prince Theo in the city before we left to come hunt. Now, why would you lie about your purpose for being out here?”
Holly felt her heart begin to race inside of her chest. She thought about her options. She could outrun them, but only if she shifted, and she couldn’t shift in front of them. She could scream, but she was too far away from both the city and where the packs were for anyone to hear her. She had a dagger in her boot that she could wield, and was an excellent fighter, but there were five of them and only one of her. She might be able to kill or wound one or two of them, but she wouldn’t be able to fend them all off at once.
“You need to let me pass,” she commanded. She thought that maybe if she sounded the part of a queen giving a direct order, it might make them think twice about messing with her and pissing off the royal family.
“I don’t think we do,” he said. “I think that it’s very suspicious that you would be out here in the woods all alone at dusk. I think that maybe our new queen has something to hide.”
Holly panicked, thinking that they had reason to suspect that she was a shifter. Up until now, the existence of shifters had all but faded from their memories. She started to think that if they already knew she was a shifter, then it wouldn’t matter if they saw her shift and run. At least then, she could manage to get away from them and get back to Rubius and her mother and brother. They’d have to deal with the aftermath. Maybe Rubius could just send some of his pack to kill them. Killing this group of men would be no loss, of that she was sure.
“Maybe the reason you’re out here is that you are looking for a place to hide once you are exposed for the illegitimate heir that you are.”
Holly let out a breath that she had been holding in. They didn’t suspect that she was a shifter; they simply suspected that her claim on the throne was invalid. That was easier to deal with than the other, at least. Still, there was a definite sense of danger in the air.
“Maybe we should try to expose her secret out here in the woods,” the first man said. He had bushy eyebrows that seemed to join his entire forehead together into one hair-filled line. “If we can get her to talk out here, then we’ll be able to prove that she shouldn’t be sitting on that throne.”
“How dare you,” Holly said as she started to get more angry than scared. These guys were nothing but a bunch of bullies trying to harass a woman in the woods alone. “You have no reason to think that I don’t have every bit as much of a claim to the throne of Grenvich as my brother does.”
“Actually,” one of the other men said, “we do.”
She stared at him until she could see the intense hatred in his eyes. She wanted to ask him how he could possibly know that her mother had an affair that resulted in her conception, but she couldn’t think of a way to ask him to prove it without insinuating that he might be correct. So instead, she pursed her lips together tightly and just glared at him.
“I have a better idea,” yet another of the men said. “Let’s solve this problem completely. There’s no one here to see anything. I say we just kill her where she stands. Then, the royal family will have no choice but to put someone else on the throne. That’s the easiest solution to this whole problem.”
Holly watched in horror as the other men nodded and seemed to be in agreement with that idea.
“What you are proposing is to assassinate the Queen of Grenvich,” she said as she tried to keep her voice from shaking. “Your actions will be punishable by death.”
“There is only a punishment for assassination if we get caught,” he said. “Which we will not. Look around, Your Highness.”
The sarcasm in his voice made Holly feel sick to her stomach.
“There’s no one here to see anything. And there are wolves in these forests, so by the time anyone even thinks to come looking for you in the woods, the wolves will have licked your bones clean.”
At the mention of the word wolves, they were met with the sound of a low and predatory growl. Holly saw all of the men look behind her, and suddenly, their faces blanched, and looks of fear crawled across them. She turned around quickly and saw a massive black wolf emerging from behind the trees. Holly stared at the wolf and recognized those eyes—the rogue shifter from the tavern.
No sooner had the men seen the wolf than they pushed off their feet and turned to run. Instead of letting the cowards run away freely, the dark wolf chased after at a furious speed. Holly simply stood there in the clearing, frozen in place. She was still shocked that the human men were ready to kill her on the spot, with no fear of the consequences, but she was more shocked about the wolf. The rogue shifter’s den was half the forest away, not anywhere near close enough for him to have heard the scuffle that she was having in the woods with the hunters. And even if he had heard it, she was stunned that he would have come to her defense. He acted as if he couldn’t have cared less about her just moments ago, and then he had been the only thing standing in the way of her and death. She stood there in the silence of the forest and waited for something to happen. After several more minutes had passed, the wolf returned. Except now, he wasn’t a wolf—he was a man.
He had chased the hunters all the way back to the forest’s edge and watched as they went screaming into the city about being attacked by a giant black wolf the size of a house. And then, he had come back to where Holly was still standing. He stood there in front of her, completely naked in his human form after having freshly shifted back. His muscles were taut and flexed from having just finished chasing the humans, and beads of sweat dripped down his defined torso from the exertion, even in the cold air. She tried not to look at the massive cock that hung between his legs, but her eyes rested upon it with an insatiable desire that she couldn’t seem to stop. His chest heaved as he caught his breath and stared at Holly with the eyes that had drawn her to him the first time she had seen him sitting in the corner of the tavern. He reached his hand up and ran it through the messy dark hair sticking to the sweat on his forehead.
“Thank you,” she finally uttered as she stumbled over her breathless words.
He didn’t say anything. He just looked at her as if he couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes away. Holly also couldn’t help but notice that the appendage between his thighs was swelling as if having a visceral reaction to just looking at her.
“I don’t even know your name,” she said, now completely flustered.
This time, he answered her with a single word.
“Dex.”