Castiel
Son of Red Riding Hood
J A Armitage
B Kristin McMichael
Contents
King of Wolves
1. 26th February
2. 27th February
3. 28th February
4. 29th February
5. 1st March
6. 2nd March
7. 3rd March
8. Terms used
Heir of the Curse
1. 4th March
2. 5th March
3. 6th March
4. 7th March
5. 8th March
6. 9th March
7. 10th March
Throne of Night
1. 11th March
2. 12th March
3. 13th March
4. 14th March
5. 15th March
6. 16th March
7. 17th March
God of Shifters
1. 18th March
2. 19th March
3. 20th March
4. 21st March
5. 22nd March
6. 23rd March
7. 24th March
A note from the author
After the Happily Ever After…
Join us
The Kingdom of Fairytales Team
About J.A. Armitage
About B. Kristin McMichael
Copyright © 2020 by J A Armitage
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Edited By Rose Lipscomb
Cover by Enchanted Quill Press
Proof Reader: Tina Merritt
Created with Vellum
King of Wolves
1
26th February
The weather was perfect for a run. It was cold enough that most people would need a coat, but not me. Winter season wasn’t entirely done yet, but the cold never bothered me. I ran a bit warmer than most, and it had only gotten worse over the past few moon cycles. I didn’t need to heat my small hut anymore as I was always warm. My fast-paced jog meant I was already sweating, even without my shirt on. The chilly winter breeze was perfect as I chased the lithe wolf, still beating me in our last turn toward home.
Running was simple, like the people of Elder. We lived in harmony with each person playing their role assigned by our leader, The Red. We traded for what we needed, and everyone took care of themselves. I’d never really known any other sort of life, but the one I was given suited me, preferring as I did, to live my own life with my own rules. I took care of myself and didn’t need anyone else to do it for me.
Since I was fifteen, every morning and every afternoon, I’d jogged around the local woods. At a full out run, I could do the southern trail before breakfast, and as long as I got out before the sun started to set, I could make the northern trail before it got completely dark. Both paths allowed me to monitor the woods between the two peoples of Elder. Three seasons ago, Red ordered me to start making the runs I now do daily in trade for items I didn’t have at my hut. At the time, I refused, but now I do it without needing to be reminded. The Red had asked me to keep an eye on the wolves, but I felt something more than that. I belonged in the woods and running made me feel alive, not that I’d ever tell her that.
I preferred the simple life of the forest to anything else. Where there were no machines for people to fight over, no money to be used, and every person you met didn’t use magic. In fact, not many people ventured here at all, and that was the way I liked it. I hadn't actually ever left the borders of Elder, but I had no reason to. All I knew of the outside kingdoms came from the few outsiders that ventured into Elder when I was growing up in the tree village, and they didn’t make our forest a stop on their way through. They always worried about what might be lurking in the woods, which for the most part, was nothing. Almost every day I was alone as I crossed the pathways that I ran. Well, I wasn’t completely alone; I had my wolf beside me.
The young wolf raised his head into the air and sniffed. Taking a deep breath, I took in the fresh forest air also. I could smell the faint scent of a river, elderberries, and a rodent of some sort nearby not to mention my wolf friend.
“Not today,” I told him, sure that he wanted to chase whatever prey it was. “I’m always in enough trouble as it is.”
The wolf shook his head. I was pretty sure that was his way of saying he didn’t agree with me. It wasn’t his butt getting in trouble every time he decided to eat something he shouldn’t. The Red would be knocking on my door, scolding me and making me make retribution for his latest folly. He’s just a wolf. Grabbing a pine cone off the tree I just passed, I took aim and hit the wolf on his head as he pounced in front of me.
“Not today.” I tried to add more authority to my voice.
The wolf dropped back alongside me and nipped at my leg. He knew we didn’t get supper until we finished our run.
Running in the big bad forest seemed to intimidate most people, but not me. I loved the fresh air and all the scents of the world around me. It was pure. It was nature: not metal or magic, just life. Contrary to what everyone thought, the evil forest was just a forest. The area I patrolled was the safe zone between the wolves and the tree people. No one crossed it on purpose, and the few that I found just needed to be set back on track because they were lost. It was a simple job and something I actually liked, but I’d never tell Red that.
A wolf howl in the distance made my companion perk up his ears, but I kept on my track. It wasn’t anything to worry about. I have no idea when it started, but I’d always had a deep connection to the animals in the woods. That howling wolf was at least two towns away. It wasn’t going to come anywhere near us and the buffer zone I patrolled. The wolf beside me whined as he didn’t have the same sense as I did.
“It’s not a problem,” I reassured him. The wolf trusted me and kept pace with me.
As I scented another smell, the wolf veered again to the left, like he was going to go off to chase something else again.
“Beat you home?” I challenged, raising an eyebrow at my companion. The wolf yipped his agreement. Without hesitation, the wolf took off.
The trees passed by as I quickened my pace to catch up with the blond wolf. He was fast, but I knew he was pushing it. This was the max speed that he could run. I was just getting going.
Within moments I was neck and neck with the wolf. He whined as he noticed me beside him, jumping the logs that littered the forest floor and ducking the low-hanging branches. I grew up in the woods, and this was like home as much to me as it was to him. Elder was mostly forested. Only the southern region had farms, but I didn’t need to patrol there. The wolves stuck to the forest, and so did the tree people I grew up with.
Ten more strides, and I pulled ahead of the wolf. He nipped at me but wasn’t close enough to get a piece of me. As I ran faster, he wasn’t going to get a second chance.
The wind and trees whipped by me as I ran, easily dodging trees and bushes. As I pushed faster, it felt like I could be a bird getting ready to take off. I was part of the forest just like every creature around me and the wolf that still pounded behind me at my heals. I focused on my pathway home and picked up my speed. This was home, and I knew every last piece of the woods I was running through.
The scent I smelled before hit me harder, and I knew exactly who it was.
Just as I burst through the pine trees that kept my small place hidden, I saw her at my doorway.
I skidded to a halt, and my wolf friend ran past me. His tongue was hanging out as he turned back to mock me while he ran full force into the hooded person standing outside my doorway. Her back was turned to us, but it didn’t matter. Red was agile and nimble as ever. She sidestepped the wolf barreling at her and let him run into the door, knocking it open.
“I see some things never change, Castiel,” Red commented as she turned to me.
Honey brown eyes assessed me like I was being analyzed from head to toe. Red had a way of doing that to everyone. She didn’t need words, just a look, and I was back to being a boy of only eight winters.
Anyone not from Elder would have never thought to look twice at the small lady before me. She stood barely taller than a one-season oak tree. Most of the people of Elder were shorter, but Red was exceptionally short. I could look her eye to eye by my tenth winter season. Now I had to look down to talk to her, but it didn’t matter. The authority that came from her made me feel like I was that little boy again, but could finally look her in the eye. I had a feeling it would be like that my whole life.
“Do I get an invite in?” She waited while I tried to remember words.
I waved my arm to the doorway, inviting her in and followed behind her as the wolf went over to my couch that doubled as my bed and climbed on to sleep. I motioned for him to move, and he finally realized Red was standing there, also looking at him. The wolf stumbled off the bed and hurried over to the corner where he slept at night when I was using the couch.
“What do I owe this visit to?” I asked as I stepped around the room and tried to hide my mess a bit. It wasn’t that my place was horrible, but Red had standards. With my foot, I kicked a pair of pants under my couch.
“Does a mother need a reason to visit her son?”
I turned my back and walked over to the stove in the corner while rolling my eyes. Pouring water into a banged-up kettle, I set it on the stove while I grabbed more wood to stoke the almost gone fire. Red didn’t visit without a reason, and she only reminded me that she was legally my mother when she wanted something.
“What did Nikkan do this time?” I asked as I grabbed two mugs from the cupboard and set them down in front of Red.
The wolf in the corner lifted his head and growled at me. I shrugged at him. This past week alone, he ate one of Farmer Allen’s chickens, and I caught him before he could chase Miss Mary’s dog into the river for a third time this moon cycle.
Red looked over at the wolf that now had his eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. I knew for a fact that Nikkan never fell asleep that easily. And there wasn’t a wolf around that would sleep with Red sitting not even a sapling away. There was a reason she was the Red of Elder, and it wasn’t because she made a good cherry pie.
Little Red Riding Hood was the name my adoptive mother earned. She was the smallest and youngest Red to ever come into power, but that didn’t mean she was the weakest. In fact, she was probably the strongest Red for over a hundred generations. Her size had nothing to do with her power. Alone, she had beaten the curse that had plagued the wolves and tree humans. The final battle was almost eighteen winters ago, but she was still a force to be reckoned with. She was a warrior with more wolf kills under her belt than any adult alive in Elder. She wasn’t someone you closed your eyes around, especially if you were a wolf.
“Was there more beyond the chicken?” Red asked as she eyed the wolf.
“Not really,” I replied. Nikkan kept his eyes closed.
“I already compensated Farmer Allen. He’s agreed to not shoot him on sight as long as he continues to get double the value of his lost stock.”
Red shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. That was a first. It was always a big deal to Red when the wolves didn’t behave.
I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Red had threatened to put Nikkan down herself when he wasn’t behaving. Not that I ever thought she would. She knew he was my friend, possibly my only friend. I grabbed the hot kettle and poured it over the leaves in her mug and mine before returning it to the stove. I joined her at my small two-seat table.
Red gazed at the wolf in the corner of my house. She had to be thinking something, but she wasn’t speaking. I knew enough to keep my questions to myself as they wouldn’t be answered. Red would tell me what I needed to know when she thought it was the right time. That was one of the hardest lessons I had to learn as a child.
I had time to just look at her as she was lost in her own thoughts. There were faint lines at the corners of her eyes. When did she get old enough to have wrinkles? I actually couldn’t remember the last time we sat together. Today was unusual. She was a busy person, running a kingdom all on her own. She stopped by at least once every other week, but she never had time for more than what she came to tell me.
My fifteenth winter was when I officially moved out. We both agreed it was best I lived on my own, and I had already spent more than a season cycle building the hut I now lived in. While Red had taken me in and raised me, there was never a doubt among the tree villagers that I didn’t belong with them. I might have the same dark hair as Red, but I looked nothing like her. And my hazel eyes kept everyone away from me. The color alone would do it since the tree people all had entirely brown eyes, but the golden ring around the hazel made everyone fear me. Season upon season of war with the wolves had made the tree dwellers distrustful of everything different, and I was certainly different. Not only in looks but in the way I felt. It was nothing I could explain, but I'd never really felt as though I fit in. It was probably part of the reason I decided to move into the forest, away from people.
Red had been working for the past eighteen winters to change their views, but stuff like that’s deep-seated. Change takes time, and after over a decade of looks and whispers, I was ready to live on my own. Red wanted Elder to change, but it wasn’t that easy. It never was, nor will it be. Especially in Elder
My first forest home had been with Nikkan and the wolves in one of the closest villages, but I soon found I didn’t fit there either. My hut was a better option, not with humans and not amongst wolves, but somewhere in between. The wolves distrusted me as much as the villagers did. I was raised in the trees with the humans. I knew their ways, and I acted too much like them. I was one of them. I found the best place was on my own in the woods. My house built by my hand on my own was all I really needed— one room with a couch, table, and chairs. A little stove provided the heat and ability to cook. What more did one teen need? The best part was, it was all mine.
“I’m planning a festival in Azren six moons from today. No one will volunteer to be my envoy to Micco and the wolves. I’d like them to come too. It’s time we move forward. All that happened was a long time ago. It’s time we become one people again.”
Red looked back at me, and I could see more lines on her face. Her forehead had a permeant line across it like the lines at the corner of her eyes. I wonder why I hadn’t noticed it last new moon or the one before. She was aging, which could only mean one thing. She was losing her powers as the Red.
“You want me to go invite the wolves?” I asked as I continued to stare at the wrinkles on her.
It was hard to see her not as I remembered her, the young, vibrant Red that taught me how to fight and stand on my own two feet. The Red that showed me the only person I needed was me. The Red that, though she didn’t kiss my cuts like most mothers, but instead, told me to get back up, was the best mother she could be. She taught me how to be independent. As much as we sometimes didn’t see eye to eye, I’d forever be in her debt for that.
“Why don’t you do it yourself?” I asked, taking a sip of my tea.
Red was actually on excellent terms with Micco, the leader of the wolves. Even though he was at least ten seasons older than her, I knew that he had a crush on her. Anyone in his inner circle knew that much. While the wolves and tree humans rarely got along, Red was spe
cial. The wolves had caused much destruction and death, but she never blamed them for it. Red was one of the good tree-dwellers.
“I would if I could get away long enough. I had to slip out today just to stop by here. Sera is probably looking for me right now. There just seems to be a never-ending list of things to get done.” Red sighed. She looked tired. It was beyond strange. Red never tired.
I sipped my tea more and watched her. She was looking intently in her cup like it held some grand secret. Red was never really one for sharing what she was thinking or the load she bore alone as she kept the tree people and all of Elder safe. She looked worn out.
“I can do that,” I told her finally when I realized she wasn’t going to add to why she wasn’t going herself.
Red smiled and nodded, but it wasn’t the kind of smile that reached her eyes.
“How is everything else?” she asked as she drank down her hot tea in one gulp before she stood. She was back to the leader I grew up with as she was all business now. The Red was back in full form.
I shrugged. “Nothing to report,” I replied like a good soldier.
“Good.” She walked back to the still-open doorway. “I’ll see you in six moons time. The festival starts at dusk.”
I nodded, and she left without another word. No, I love you, son. Take care, son. Stay safe, son. That was the mother I was used to. She didn’t ask if I was coming; she ordered me to come. That was the part of her I could never get along with, but the soft, tired Red was beyond strange. I watched as she blended into the trees with her brown cape and disappeared from my view.
Castiel: Son of Red Riding Hood (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 3) Page 1
