Royal Wolf Box Set by Haley Weir
Chapter Eight
Holly’s eyes were so fixated on the man in front of her that she was speechless. The fact that she had nearly been murdered by a pack of human hunters now seemed like a far-off memory. She knew that she should say something else to him, but her mind was completely blank of any cohesive thought.
“It’s getting dark,” Dex said. “And there are more human hunting parties in the woods tonight. I saw them on my run back here to you. You should just stay here until morning when it’s safe for you to return to the castle.”
“Stay here?” she asked, not knowing quite what here meant.
“You can stay with me,” he said.
Immediately, Holly remembered how small and cozy his den looked. Between that recollection and the image of his nude and visibly excited body, Holly felt a wave of heat rush over her. She nodded in agreement, knowing that he was right. She didn’t want to run into any more hunting parties tonight. So, she followed Dex back to his den. The walk back was silent, and he had shifted back into wolf form to walk beside her, which she found much less distracting than his engorged human form.
When they returned to his den, Dex shifted back again and pulled on a new change of clothes. He didn’t say much of anything to her at first, but he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Holly. There was such palpable sexual angst between them that it hung in the air like a heavy mist. Dex started a fire, and Holly watched as he cooked some meat and brought out ale for them to drink. There was something about this mysterious man that she was so drawn to that she couldn’t explain it even if her life depended on it. She sat down beside the fire with him. The warm flames felt good against the cool prickle of the winter air. Fortunately, shifters had a higher body temperature than humans, even when they were in human form. So although they may have been cold, they wouldn’t suffer the harmful effects of the cold as a human would. The meat Dex cooked was delicious, and he pulled tender pieces off the branch skewers to hand to Holly. Venison was one of her favorites, and although she enjoyed eating it back at the castle, the food that was prepared in the kingdom was no comparison to the rich and juicy chunks of venison that Dex had cooked over the open flame. The edges of the meat were charred and crispy, and the inside was rare and melted in her mouth. It was honestly one of the most delicious meals that she had ever remembered having, and all it required was a deer and a branch over an open fire. She took a swig of the cold ale, which Dex had kept vats of buried in the snow, to wash it down.
“Is this the ale from the tavern?” she asked, finally breaking the silence between them.
“Yes,” he said. “It’s my favorite ale, so that tavern keeper and I have an arrangement.”
“What kind of arrangement?” she asked curiously.
“He gives me vats of ale whenever I want them, and I bring him fresh venison whenever he wants it.”
“That is an amazing arrangement,” Holly smiled.
She thought that she heard Dex chuckle under his breath, but she couldn’t be sure because his face seemed to stay the same. She watched his eyes as he stared into the flames and the shadows danced across his orbs. She thanked him for a delicious meal, and then Dex got up and refilled their cups. Although at first, the evening had been nearly silent and awkward, the ale began to loosen both of their tongues after a bit and they started to talk. They slouched up against the side of a tree and began to enjoy each other’s company enough to ask a few pertinent questions.
“Why did you want to be a loner without a pack?” Holly blurted out bluntly.
It wasn’t exactly chit-chat, but it was something that she wanted to know.
“Why did you want to be a queen?” he asked in retort.
The ale made them find each other’s questions amusing, and they laughed for a moment. But then they stopped and were more thoughtful about the questions being asked.
“I asked you first,” she said gently. “I really would like to know.”
“I was not free to do what I wanted to do in my previous pack,” Dex answered. “There were too many rules and too many things that weren’t acceptable. I felt stifled, and I wanted to be free. So, I left.”
Holly was a bit apprehensive to know what kinds of things Dex could have possibly wanted to do that weren’t allowed in a pack. She hesitated to ask but figured it would be better to find out now if there was something shocking that Dex was hiding.
“What kinds of things weren’t you able to do?”
He sighed and looked up at the sky before answering her.
“I wanted to be able to run as far as I wanted to go without being told to return. I wanted to catch and cook my own meat without having to portion it off and share it with those who didn’t try to hunt at all. I wanted to be able to walk nakedly as a man and make love with whom I chose to. I don’t think those sorts of things should have rules or need permission.”
Holly agreed. Obviously, there were rules in her pack about such things too, and even in her kingdom. Men couldn’t go around nude and humping women in the streets. Pack rules meant that the wolves didn’t run wild without recourse. But Holly agreed with Dex that there was a part that called to her wildness too, and she didn’t think those things should have to be accounted for.
“Why didn’t you join another pack after you left?” she asked. “Some are more liberal than others.”
“That is true,” he said. “And I had planned on finding another pack initially. But then time passed, and I got comfortable and happy with being on my own. I enjoyed the solitude of freedom, and I no longer wanted to be ruled by anyone.”
“And you don’t find it more difficult to be a loner?”
Dex laughed.
“It is definitely more difficult,” he said. “But all the best things are.”
Holly took another long sip of her ale. It made sense to her what Dex was saying. It was as if he could put into words the thoughts that she had buried in the back of her head somewhere just out of reach.
“Now,” he said. “It’s your turn. Why do you want to be a queen? You seem to like freedom too. But being a ruler is, at times, even more restricted than being ruled over. Being a queen and wanting freedom seem like two opposing forces to me.”
“They are,” Holly sighed as she put the cup to her lips again. “I wanted to be queen simply because my brother didn’t want to be king, and I wanted him to be happy. I saw how miserable the prospect of ruling over Grenvich made him, so I took that misery from him.”
“That is stupid,” Dex said.
Holly looked at him in surprise.
“Well, it is,” he said as he shook his head. “Taking someone’s misery just so that you can be miserable yourself doesn’t change the amount of misery in the world. Your family should have found a better way.”
“No, I don’t think I’ve explained it properly,” Holly continued. “I am a good leader, at least I think I can be. I am not averse to being queen. I am only averse to being queen under the rules that currently exist. I want to do things differently. I want to make new rules and innovate new ways for humans and shifters to thrive alongside each other.”
“That sounds ambitious,” Dex said.
“I guess so. But it will likely never happen.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You saw what happened tonight,” she answered. “The humans hate me.”
“No, that’s not true,” Dex said as he shook his head. “The bad humans hate you, and that is a sign that you are doing something good. Do not let those fools dissuade you. You must continue on with the vision that you seek to bring to the kingdom and to those around you.”
Holly stared at him with glassy eyes.
“What are you looking at?” he asked as he stared back at her.
She wanted to lean forward and kiss him so badly. Even more so, she wanted him to lean forward and kiss her.
“You are very wise,” she said. “I wouldn’t have known that if you hadn’t started talking.”
Dex laughed, and he set his cup down to stand up.
“And you are very drunk,” he chuckled as he picked Holly up and carried her into the den.
He laid her down on his soft pile of blankets and curled around her to sleep, keeping his hands to himself as they both drifted off.