by G. Bailey
Run Little Prince
The Forest Pack Series: Book Three
G. Bailey
Contents
Join Bailey’s Pack
Description
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Epilogue
Author Note
More Books by G. Bailey…
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About the Author
A Name Like Karma
Run Little Prince © 2019 G. Bailey
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Edited by Polished Perfection
Created with Vellum
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In the fairy tale, a Prince saved Snow White with a kiss. Snow won’t get saved like a fairy tale; instead, she needs to be the one who saves the day...
After jumping into the elf realm and leaving her daughter behind to save her mates, Snow finds out there are much darker secrets going on inside the locked up castle she is desperate to invade.
When the extremely seductive prince of the elves offers her help in exchange for her hand in marriage, Snow knows she must accept it.
To save her mate, her prince and her new husband, Snow will do whatever it takes.
Even poison the queen...
18+ RH short fairy tale retelling of stories, with a lovely HEA!
For the love of fairy tales.
"My wolf isn't little," I warn him, and he grins at me before pausing in his steps. I stop, wondering what he is waiting for when I scent it. My wolf pushes to the surface, but I don't let her out for a full shift yet. Not when there is an unknown danger. A low growl leaves my lips just before I see a spear flying through the air towards Aith's back. I run and jump, catching the spear and spinning around, throwing it right back at the elf with dark blue skin that is trying to run away.
I get out my dagger, spinning around as I look for the danger. I catch a glimpse of someone and lift my hand, but before I can see if I hit my target, I cry out as something sharp tears into my lower leg, and my dagger falls out of my hand. Before I fall, I see Aith picking up my dropped dagger and throwing it at someone. My body slams against the path, and I reach down for whatever stabbed my leg before I try to sit up. I rip my leggings to the knee, seeing this dagger is really stuck in there. It looks to be made of a strange blue metal, and the hilt is silver. I close my eyes and place my hand on the hilt before screaming as I pull it out, feeling the world getting blurry as Aith's hands rest on my shoulder.
I open my eyes to see him using the ripped parts of my leggings to bandage my leg before tying it up as I cry out in pain. Everything gets fuzzy as my wolf howls in my mind, pushing me to shift and let her heal everything. I can't do that because she might not let me shift back for a long time in her panic. I have to save Erik and Prince before it's too late. I can't go back to Arisa without her dad. I can't imagine a life without them both.
"We are closer to my castle than the town. You need help," Aith tells me before lifting me up in the air and holding me to his chest. "You saved my life, pretty little wolf. Don’t panic."
"I did come here to save people, just it wasn't m-meant to be y-you," my voice drifts as I try to speak, and Aith’s face gets all blurry.
Leaves, branches and grass crash into me as I roll down a hill, reaching out my hands to grab anything to stop my fall, but finding leaves and dirt that scratch my hands instead. I suddenly slam into something hard, taking the air out of my lungs and stopping my downward fall since I dropped through that portal. It was meant to drop me right outside my parents’ friends’ house, or at least that is what they said in their letter. This is not right, and if I'm lost in the elf realm, then I'm royally screwed. Hopefully, I'm at least somewhere near their house, and I can wander around to find it.
I stare up at the high trees as I rub my arm which hit the rock, seeing the beautiful and vibrant purple leaves hanging off their branches. The sunlight reflects off the leaves, creating pink hues that shine all over the ground. The tiny water drops reflect the pink light, making the forest look so magical and beautiful that it is hard to look at for too long. This very world is pure magic. Seductive, dangerous and deadly magic.
It makes you want to stay and never leave, which can never happen to me. I’m Snow Forest, and I am on a mission. I have to get back to my daughter, Arisa, and save her father. If I don’t, then leaving Arisa with my brother and sister-in-law was pointless and heartbreaking for us both. I keep picturing her sweet face as I told her I had to leave to save her dad and that I would come back soon. She didn’t believe me and begged me not to leave. I hate the world she is used to, where people often don’t come back from a dangerous place, and she has grown up knowing it. I only want to protect her, and sometimes as a parent you have to do the hardest thing in the world: walk away and make a promise you cannot keep.
As I get the air back and my shifter healing fixes my graze on my arm, I rub my face, mentally groaning when I realise I’ve just wiped dirt all over me. After worrying about not keeping my promise to return to Arisa, I realise how much worse everything is. I need to save the prince, my other destined mate, which is more complicated than I ever want to admit to anyone. I've not even admitted to myself how much I love them both—and how much they have no idea I do. Erik, Arisa's father and my first mate, hasn't spoken more than two words to me in years, and I wish he would. We lost a baby together, and he has been a closed book ever since. It hurts to even think back to that day, and I try to always remember we have Arisa, which makes us much luckier than most. I just wish Erik could see it.
Prince and I met several months ago and knew we were destined mates straightaway. I kept it a secret, but we had been meeting up for a while before Erik and Prince were trapped in the castle six months ago. Prince and I were having a secret relationship because neither of us knew how to tell Erik about it since he is the prince's best friend. Or used to be. Damn, this is all complicated, and I’m sat on the ground, covered in dirt in a random elf forest. I need to focus on why I came here because a letter from my parents’ old friends said someone could get me into the castle where my mates are trapped. That is my only focus now.
"Hello? Do you need assistance? I saw you fall!" a deep male voice shouts from nearby as I struggle to sit up and crouch under the rock I have smacked into. "Hold on, dear lady, I am on the way to help." I pull out a dagger, hiding it behind my back as I use my wolf senses to track which direction the man is coming from. I twirl to the left just as a man jumps off the rock I'm almost hidden under, stopping right in front of me. However, this man is an elf; h
is light green skin and pointy ears give him away. I haven't seen an elf not in glamour for a long time, unless you count on Halloween, but who knows if that is their real appearance or a costume. This man makes me pause though, because he is genuinely gorgeous with his thick, shiny black hair that falls around his face, his large blue eyes and high cheekbones. He has a muscular body, which I can see most of because of his lack of shirt. Light green rippled abs and a firm chest nearly distract me from the fact this man is a stranger. His tight leather pants aren’t helping much either; they showcase way too many, err, big things.
"Pretty little wolf, are you lost?" he asks, and his voice is deep, husky, and again it almost distracts me. Damn, this place has some seductive magic, and this man is everything it can create rolled into one.
"My name is Snow Forest. I am the sister to the alpha of the Forest Pack. I am not lost, not exactly anyway. I was meant to land in front of my parents’ friends’ house," I explain to him, because something about him doesn’t threaten me. Well, not exactly, he is sexy in a threatening way. Though that can be said about all supernaturals; it’s just that this guy is more than usual.
"Portals are a tricky thing, pretty little wolf. Even the strongest of our magic users struggle to aim them correctly in this world. Why don't I escort you to the local town, and we can find out where you are meant to be?" he asks me, flashing me a friendly smile that shows off his pearly white teeth.
"Why should I trust you?" I retort, eyeing him suspiciously. Never trust free help from a stranger...there is always a cost. The supernatural world is much like the human one in that aspect. "I don't even know your name."
"You trust me, or that pretty dagger behind your back would be in my chest by now," he replies, his lips tilting up in a smirk as he takes one step closer to me. "You are a good judge of character, we both know it. My name is Prince Aithlin Shadoward, heir to the elf throne. By my name and title, I pledge to safely escort you to the local town."
"Your Highness," I cough out in shock, stepping backwards. Shit, I pulled a dagger out on an elf prince. The heir, for goddesses’ sake. This isn't the best start to the rescue mission. Aithlin just chuckles, shaking his head and waving a hand towards the trees behind him.
"Shall we?" he asks. “It is not safe to be out in these woods at night, and it is quite a distance to town without a horse. We do not want to be snacks for dangerous creatures that live here.”
"Well, thank you, Prince Aithlin," I reply, knowing I don’t have a choice. I do not want to be fighting creatures in a forest when I have more important things to do. The last thing I want my daughter to hear is that her mother got eaten by a creature in a forest on her rescue mission.
"Call me Aith, pretty little wolf." With that, he turns around and starts heading through the trees. I'm left wondering what a prince is doing alone in the forest in the first place.
"Wow, we were really far away from a town then, huh?" I ask Aith after a long walk to find a footpath from the middle of the trees we were in. My wolf senses haven’t picked up a scent of anyone but the prince here. Damn, I really messed up by falling into this forest, and I’m glad I ran into this prince now. I would have been lost and likely snacks for some creature by the end of the night. Even my wolf wouldn’t have been able to outrun or escape some of the nightmare creatures I’ve read about that live in this world. The humans think wolves are bad…some things in this world are so much worse.
"Yes, and you are in the royal forest. It was lucky on your part that I was the one to find you and not the guards. The royal forest is strictly off limits to non-royals," he explains to me, making me nearly freeze in my steps. I spent ages in my brother's library, looking up maps of the elf kingdom to plan this trip. As far as I know from memory, the royal palace, forest and neighbouring town are on the other side of the world from where I was heading.
"Thanks for finding and helping me then," I reply to him, shaking my head at myself and the mess I've gotten myself into. I'm meant to be saving my mates, not getting lost while I try to help them.
"Tell me, why are you here?" he asks me, placing his hands behind his back, holding them together and walking with his head held high. I should have guessed this guy is a prince straightaway, no one non-royal walks like that. I’m pretty sure all royals are trained to walk like they have a stick up their ass from birth. It reminds me of my destined mate and a conversation we once had.
“So your name is Prince Shifter, and your mother’s name is Queen Shifter?” I ask Prince as we walk through the forest together. This forest is neutral pack land, a place no one owns and no one ever comes to. We meet here regularly, a way to be together without prying eyes as we try to get to know each other. Only Harper knows, and she covers for me to come here. We all know Nikoli, my brother and alpha, wouldn’t like it. For a month, Prince and I have met here, and he never touches me. He just asks every question under the sun, and I do the same.
“You can guess my father’s name. When I become king, my name will change from Prince to King. It is the royal shifter way and has been for a very long time,” he explains to me, his voice impassive on the matter. His hand brushes mine every so often as we walk, and my fingers twitch to reach out and take his hand.
“Personally, I don’t like it,” I inform him, being more brutally honest than I thought I would.
“You don’t like my name?” he asks, faking hurt. We both laugh before I answer.
“Not in an offensive way, but it’s not yours. Prince, Queen and King are titles, not personal names that are yours to keep,” I explain to him. Your name is the only thing no one can take from you. It’s yours, but a title can be taken easily. I guess they have that tradition because being royalty is their lives. Prince just doesn’t seem to care about most of the old traditions though, so it surprises me he is so okay with this one.
“If we are discussing that, Snow is not a personal name. It is the name of a troublesome weather we get once or twice a year,” he replies, raising a bushy black eyebrow at me.
“My full name is Snowleigh, but not many people call me that,” I explain to him. No one knows that, and I don’t tell people, because it’s personal. Only Nikoli knows, and he still chooses to call me Snow around other people.
“I’m calling you Leigh from now on then. It’s my name for you,” Prince decides.
“What can I call you that no one else does then?” I ask.
“Mine,” he replies, winking at me and making me smile widely because I like that. He is mine after all.
Aith clears his throat, snapping me out of the flashback of a memory. It takes me a second to remember what we were talking about and figure out what to say to him. "Have you heard of what the queen of the shifters has done?" Aith nods, his reaction betraying how he clearly hoped I wouldn’t bring her up. I think everyone is feeling that, all supernaturals. This isn’t usual behaviour, and the queen of the shifters has many truces and deals. I’ve heard many rumours of how she is extremely liked, and she created much peace throughout the supernatural communities. The vampire king and queen are well known to be friends with her, and so are the fae. I don’t know the elf stance on the queen, but I’m sure she has snaked her way into their world at some point to make friends.
"Everyone has heard. I believe your pack and the Bearlay pack had some trouble with her before the gates were shut for good," he replies, making me aware how all news does get everywhere. “A queen that is at war with two of the largest packs she is meant to rule is not a good queen. I do not know why she has locked herself up, but we are all concerned. A queen out of control is a worry indeed.”
"No one can get into the castle, and I need to get in. That is why I’m here. My parents’ friends said they knew a way or person who could help me get into the castle," I say, and Aith smirks at me for a second before looking back at the road.
"I know a way, and I suspect it is the same thing your parents’ friends were going to tell you," he tells me.
"How?" I immediately a
sk.
"Tell me why you want to get into a castle with an insane queen first? Surely you know it would be easier for me to kill you than for you to be killed at her hand," he asks, which is a fair question.
"My mate and a man I love are in there," I honestly answer.
"Are the two things different?" he enquires. It makes me pause just because I realise how it all sounds.
"My mate and I have our differences, but I have to save him for my daughter, Arisa," I explain, because that is the best I can say about him. I do love him, I always have, but I don’t know how he feels about me now.
"I understand. I have a child as well, but I could not save my mate before she died," he tells me, making me wonder why he would tell a stranger something so personal. “If I could have saved her, I would have—if not for love, for love of my son and his bond with her.”
"I'm sorry. I know much about death. I lost Arisa's twin at birth," I end up telling him, and I really have no clue why I’m telling him this. He is a stranger…but he doesn’t feel like one. Everything about him makes me want to trust him, to tell him my darkest secrets.
"I am very sorry for your loss. With all the magic we have, childbirth has always been a deadly risk for our people and yours. You do understand, maybe even more than I. My mate and I were only together two years before she died in childbirth. I love my son, and I am thankful every day for him," he tells me, and I can almost feel the grief, but the love for his son comes through more. I hope that is how I sound when I talk about losing my son and giving birth to my daughter on the same day. Arisa is my world, a walking reminder of the good in the world. I picture her curly black hair, bright green eyes, and the pout she does when she doesn’t get her own way. Arisa is nearly seven and looks so much like Erik, and she acts a lot like him too. They both are stubborn and feel everything so much more without letting anyone help.
