by Haley Weir
“I think that you should follow your heart,” he smiled.
“That’s cheating,” she grinned.
“How so?”
“Because that’s what mom always says.”
“Well,” Rubius said thoughtfully. “Your mother is right. And it has served her well all these years.”
Holly paused before shifting and springing into the thicket of trees.
“But there is only one man that I love,” she said with a near-sadness to her voice. “And I can’t ask him to marry me.”
Rubius gave her a knowing look. And he also already knew the reasons why she felt that she couldn’t ask him to marry her. It was the same reasons why Cassandra had tried to keep at arm’s length with him too. She didn’t want to trap him into a life with rules and duties and a lack of freedom.
“Sometimes,” Rubius said, “we don’t need to ask. Sometimes, the one we love does the asking for us.”
Before Holly could ask him what he meant by that, Rubius eyes gleamed a golden yellow and he shifted into a regal wolf, ready to run alongside his daughter for as long as she needed to be wild and free from the thoughts that troubled her, before safely accompanying her back to the castle when she was finished.
Holly shifted too and ran toward the trees.
After they had run until their legs ached, they stopped to drink at one of the streams near Rubius’ pack territory. Fortunately, he always kept changes of clothes stashed on his territory, and after the two of them had dressed, they took a moment to enjoy the peaceful stillness of the forest before heading back. A decision would need to be made, and if the decision wasn’t one to marry, then they would need to come up with something else before the humans amassed more unrest that would become a formidable threat against the castle. Just before they were readying to leave, there was a rustling in the woods, and Rubius turned to see Dex there. He walked slowly out of the trees, and Rubius handed him a change of clothes as well.
“I suppose this is one of the perks of being in a pack?” Dex said jokingly. “Your alpha provides you with an endless supply of clothing to change into after every shift?”
Rubius threw his head back and laughed.
“I suppose that would be one of the perks,” he said.
Dex took the clothes to put on, and Rubius decided that Holly was in good hands.
“I’m going to head back to the castle,” Rubius said to his daughter, who was still sitting by the stream. “You’re in good hands, and I think that you two might want to talk alone for a while.”
He Holly a wink, although she wasn’t sure why, and then headed back toward the kingdom.
“Why are you here?” she asked Dex as he came to sit down beside her by the stream.
“I wanted to come and ask you something,” he said. His voice shook a bit as if he was nervous about something.
Holly didn’t think she had ever really seen him nervous before—awkward and angsty, yes. But not necessarily nervous.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I want you to marry me,” he said.
Holly was too shocked to actually believe him at first. She laughed lightly to try and eliminate the seriousness of the moment.
“Well, first of all,” she said, “that’s not a question.”
Dex looked even more nervous than he had a moment ago.
“Let me try again then,” he said as he cleared his throat. “Holly, will you marry me?”
This time, there wasn’t really any way for her to ignore or play down the question. She felt a rush of feelings—some good and some not so good. She didn’t want to get her hopes up that Dex actually loved her enough to marry her. She was sure that he was just doing this because he knew it would solve the problem in the kingdom and protect her.
“Why are you asking me that?” she said.
“I’m asking you that because I want you to marry me,” he said.
“That’s not true. You’re doing it because of the trouble with the humans. You feel guilty that we were overheard and you’re trying to fix it by asking me to marry you.”
“No,” he said matter-of-factly. “I don’t feel guilty at all. That wasn’t my doing. And I’m not asking you to marry me just to fix a problem with the humans. I’m asking you to marry me because I’m in love with you.”
Holly felt her breath catch in her throat. She felt as if her heart had clawed its way up her chest and was preventing her from being able to speak actual words. Her stomach churned in a battle of butterflies and her skin tingled as if it had been lit on fire.
“But,” she finally said in a whisper that was all she could seem to get out. “If you were to marry me, then you would have to live in the kingdom. That would be the exact opposite of living alone as a rogue shifter. That isn’t what you want.”
“How do you know what I want?” he asked gently as he moved his body closer to hers. “What if I told you that I hadn’t ever really known what I wanted until I saw you. That moment that I first saw you in the tavern—the time that I ran away from you. What if I told you that I knew then, what I know now, that all I really want is to be with you.”
“You can’t mean it,” she said as she felt her mouth getting closer to his. “Think of all the things that you would have to give up to be married to a queen. You would become a king. You would need to rule people and live in the kingdom and you would be trapped.”
“No,” Dex said. “I could never feel trapped again as long as I am with you. Your parents have made it work, and they are happy and free. We can do the same.”
“Do you really love me?” she asked as the sting of tears pinched at the corners of her eyes.
“Yes,” he said before kissing her.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
On the day of their wedding ceremony, the humans in the kingdom and the shifters from the forest attended the lavish event in the city. None of the humans were aware that anyone other than humans was present among them. The wedding had been announced immediately, which quelled the uprising for a moment to breathe. And then the ceremony had been put together with even more haste so that there was no time for the troublemakers to get things riled up again. Fortunately, the royal family had everything they could want at their disposal, so throwing together a beautiful and regal wedding at the spur of the moment was no trouble at all. Food, decorations, flowers, and even a beautiful wedding gown were ready within a day’s time.
The kingdom was even more eager to embrace the union of Holly and her new husband than Rubius and Cassandra had expected. They had thought that it would keep trouble from stirring too much more, but it was actually met with great joy and welcome by most of the kingdom. As was already known, most of the townsfolk loved Holly, and now that she would have a husband, and there would be a king sitting atop the throne alongside her, the humans felt secure in the fact that the royal family would remain intact. Therefore, the uprisings ceased, and the wedding was packed to the brim with excited guests.
The troublemakers had only really been a few small groups to begin with, mostly packs of hunters that had managed to stir discord in the rest of the city. But now that everyone else seemed okay with the situation, the hunters had a more difficult time causing problems. And that was the entire point of the marriage.
The wedding ceremony itself was a joyous and elaborate event. The ritual and the vows were meaningful and splendid, and on top of being exactly what the humans wanted to hear, they were also a moving moment between Holly and Dex. The guests were all treated with the best finery of meats and cheeses and breads and served with an endless supply of ale and wine. The royal family stayed outside of the castle after the ceremony to enjoy the revelry with the people and to show that they were all a united kingdom together.
Holly was pleased to see that the tavern keeper was there pouring out mugs of ale.
“Look at you being so beautiful and all in your wedding gown,” he smiled at her.
He was such a kin
dly old man, and Holly felt as if they were friends since he had kept her appearance at the tavern so inconspicuous for all the times that she had gone there to drink ale and escape her royal monotony. He handed her a full mug and then poured one for himself as well and raised his glass to hers.
“Cheers and well wishes to you and your new husband, and our new king,” he smiled.
“I’ll drink to that,” Holly smiled as they both indulged in a long swig.
“Yes, I’m pretty sure that you’ll drink to anything, won’t you?” the man next to her said. “A drunken queen is certainly not going to have a sober wedding.”
Holly turned to look at the man and immediately recognized him as one of the hunters from the first altercation that she had in the tavern. From the corner of her eye, she saw the tavern keeper slip away to go and get her husband for help.
“It is a lucky thing that you have a husband by your side now, isn’t it?” he said. “To keep you safe from mongrels like us.”
“He is not just a husband,” Holly snarled at him. “He is your king.”
The man laughed.
“That man that you slept with out in a cave in the pit of the woods is no more deserving to be a king to me than you are to be a queen. I will recognize neither of you. And perhaps when you are gone, your mother will once again realize that it is her place to sit on that throne instead of trying to pass off her illegitimate daughter as a ruler.”
Holly was about to turn and walk away from him, realizing that it was pointless to get into an altercation with this pathetic man since there was nothing that he could do now anyway. But no sooner had she turned her back than he pulled a blade from his sheath and readied to plunge it into her back, directly where her heart aligned in her chest.
Dex didn’t have time to think about the consequences. He saw what was about to happen and knew that there was not enough time for Holly to turn to see it and protect herself. Nor was there enough time for him or anyone else to get to her on human feet in time to save her. So, he did the one thing that would save her life, although it might possibly endanger the lives of all of them in the moments after. Dex shifted, right there in front of the entire kingdom of gathered humans, and leaped onto the hunter who was within a split moment of skewering the queen in her back. He descended upon him and tore the man’s head from his shoulders. Then he stood there on all four paws—a massive black wolf with human blood dripping from his jaws.
Screams erupted from the crowd of humans as they all backed away in panic. The people that didn’t back away were the shifters at the gathering, and since they were now in fear of an attack, their eyes glowed yellow, and they, too, were revealed. Holly turned around immediately when she heard commotion and saw Dex in his shifted form after clearly having just saved her life. Her mouth dropped open, and she stood beside him protectively, putting her hand on his back and looking toward her stunned parents for guidance as to what to do. Cassandra and Rubius looked just as shocked and disarmed as Holly was, and Theo quickly ran to stand beside his pack members to try to temper their reaction to what might happen.
It was the most tumultuous and elevated situation that could have possibly happened. Not only was the existence of the wolf shifters revealed, but instead of revealing them as a peaceful species able to coexist with the humans, they were introduced to Dex’s brutal wolfish attack on a human. Everyone was frozen in a tense silence until one human woman spoke up.
“The hunter was about to kill the queen,” she said. Her voice was shaking and terrified, but also loud enough for everyone to hear. “Her husband saved her. He turned into that giant wolf, and he saved the queen.”
No one knew how to react to what the woman had said. The humans stared in a paralyzed fear at Dex in his shifted form, and the shifters waited to see if they would need to fight or run depending on what reaction the humans would have.
This was the moment that Holly had been waiting for. Granted, it may not have come in the manner in which she wanted. But now it was her chance to seize this moment to affect the change that she wanted to make in the kingdom of Grenvich.
“People of Grenvich,” Holly said with as commanding and calm a voice as much as she could muster. “Today, your perceptions of reality will change, and they will change for the better. Today, you have seen something that few others before you have seen, and you will now have the sacred duty to convey the truth about the wonders that you are about to experience to all of your future generations. Today, thanks to the bravery and the love that my husband has for me, and his desire to keep your very own kingdom safe from the likes of the hunters who would seek to murder your queen—you have now discovered the existence of the wolf shifters.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
At first, there was a heavy tension on both sides, as the shifters and the humans tried to navigate coexisting together with neither of them completely trusting the other yet. But as a few days passed, and more and more shifters began making their presence known, the humans started to become more curious than afraid. Aside from the killing of the hunter who had tried to assassinate Holly, the shifters, including the royal family, shifted forms off and on within the city for the humans to see and come to understand without fear. Holly thought it was interesting to watch the stages of acceptance that the humans seemed to go through. After their initial fear, they were curious, almost as if the shifters were oddities at the circus. Then, after their curiosity was satiated, the humans were uncomfortable with the way the shifters would be naked following transformations. Then after they got over that awkwardness, they were just back to being curious again. They were still on-edge though and easily startled, more so than usual. Holly and her family could see that it would take time for a level of comfort to be achieved.
The humans weren’t the only ones who were uneasy. The shifters were also nervous and worried about their secret having been exposed after all this time. They feared that there were perhaps more hunters hidden in the midst of the townsfolk that would come after them without warning. So there was a trust that needed to be levied on both sides. At first, only Holly had thought that the existence of such a mutual trust was obtainable, but once the secret was out and there was no choice but to move ahead, the rest of the royal family began to embrace the idea that maybe it could indeed be possible for the humans and shifters to live together in harmony. And instead of living beside each other and completely unaware of their existence, that they could now finally live together.
Holly and Dex decided to lead by example and announced that this year they would merge the winter festivals of both the humans and the shifters into one big winter Yuletide celebration for all to attend. They planned for it to be held in the forest so that the humans would no longer fear what lay inside the woods, and the shifters would no longer be wary of the human’s presence there. They needed to show each other that neither side was a threat, no matter whether they were inside the city or within the forest. The shifters were apprehensive but excited. They wanted to believe in a brokered peace just as much as the humans did. The humans were nervous too, but eager to see what lay within the woods at last.
When it was time for the celebration to begin, the royal family led the townspeople on the walk from the kingdom into the forest. Holly and Dex led the way, and Holly looked so breathtakingly beautiful in an ivory winter gown trimmed with fur and decorated with embroidered berries that Dex couldn’t take his eyes off her. Behind them followed Cassandra and Rubius, along with Theo and Marquette. Theo held his son over his shoulder, and the boy’s eyes were wide with wonder about the massive crowd of people that followed them into the woods. The entire city came behind them, and the humans were awash with excited whispers until they started to walk into the thicket of trees and into the forest itself.
The shifters were waiting for them inside of a beautifully decorated forest. They had gone out of their way to make the nighttime woods feel magical and welcoming and festive. There were strings of sparkling white l
ights hung from the branches of trees and candles lining the paths. There were wildflowers scattered in the enclave and trays of food and drink set up for everyone to enjoy. Music was playing, and the shifters were already dancing barefoot under the twinkling lights on top of the soft moss beneath their toes. The humans were fascinated and in awe of how beautiful and peaceful the woods seemed to be. Cassandra took the hands of some of the human women and led them into the clearing to see the delicious food that the shifters had laid out. Rubius followed suit and led some of the men toward the barrels of sweet wine that the shifters had made themselves. Even the children were there to enjoy the festivities, and Theo and Marquette grabbed the hands of some of them to go and dance and play in the center of the clearing. One little girl sat down on the thick moss and began to braid the wildflowers into her hair.
Still, there were some people who were less ambitious to go right in and get comfortable. A few were more nervous than the rest—on both sides. But eventually, they started to walk over to each other and talk. The Yule celebration was a time of peace and merriment, and that made it the perfect festivity to host the first gathering of two species together. There were no more threats and no more hunters, there were only people who were trying to understand and appreciate each other in order to get along. Tensions eased, and eventually, everyone began to have a wonderful time. The endless pouring of wine and ale helped to ease reservations and lift apprehensions, and soon the sound of merriment could be heard filling the forest, and perhaps even echoing all the way back through the empty walls of the kingdom since everyone was there instead. Some of the more prominent figureheads of the city sat down at a table to meet with the royal family. They discussed matters of how they would ensure that the peace remained between them all.
“There are measures that we should put into place,” Rubius said. “To ensure that both humans and shifters always feel safe and at peace in both the city and the forest.”
“Measures, as in laws?” the Tavern Keeper asked. He had a seat at this table because, in addition to being the tavern keeper, he was also one of the most respected elders among the humans. Holly could see why—he was a calm and wise old man.
