Queen of the Lycan
Mackenzie Grey: The Crown #1
Karina Espinosa
Copyright © 2021 by Karina Espinosa
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.
Cover design by © Christian Bentulan
Edited by Stacy Sanford
Copyright 2021 by Karina Espinosa
ISBN-13: 9798712232031
ASIN: B08X3SH3R9
Mom,
I didn’t say Jesus was a Warlock.
Contents
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
Chapter 19
About the Author
Also by Karina Espinosa
About the Author
1
Every little girl wanted to be a princess.
The fluffy pink dress, the tiara perched atop their head, and sparkling diamonds galore. Reigning over the masses and declaring their royal decree. To be the prettiest in the room where all want to be her and admire her. She was the definition of elegance, grace, and beauty. It was the dream.
Except it wasn’t mine.
Not every little girl dreamed of this, and while we might be the minority, I refused to fit the stereotype.
I stood on a circular stand where many lunas—female werewolves—were dressing me for an event tonight, and I was starting to lose my patience. I grabbed a fistful of the pink chiffon skirt and growled.
“I’m not wearing this!” I declared to the room of lunas who were just doing their job. They were some of the best seamstresses in Sheunta Village and I really shouldn’t have been taking my anger out on them.
“I’m sorry, Princess?” One of them approached me. She was an older woman, maybe mid-fifties. Her hair was reddish brown and tied back in a bun.
“What’s your name?” I asked as politely as possible.
“Ana,” she responded in her Scottish brogue.
“Please, Ana, call me Mackenzie.” I smiled broadly. “But for the love of God, Ana, get me out of this dress.” I looked like a chewed-up piece of bubble gum that someone spit out.
“Well, Princess … I mean Mackenzie, this is the dress the King has chosen,” she explained haltingly, as if her hands were tied in the situation.
I was going to kill Alexander. King Alexander was my biological father, though I only found out about him in recent years. During our time together I’d come to find him endearing … until this very moment. Who let a man choose a dress for a woman? The whole situation was ridiculous! I would rather attend the event butt-ass naked than in this pink monstrosity.
I took a couple deep breaths and pinched the bridge of my nose as I stared at my reflection in the floor-to-ceiling mirror across from me. The other seamstresses were standing ten feet away from me as if they were afraid I would explode at any moment. I hated that I seemed to be having a diva fit, because let’s be real, this was totally a diva fit, but I adamantly refused to wear this dress. Over my dead body.
“Ana,” I began again, smiling brightly as I stepped down from the platform, lifting the skirt so I wouldn’t step on the pastel nightmare train. “Friend,” I tried to sweeten my voice as I placed a nonthreatening hand on her shoulder. “I understand what the King wants, but he’s not here and he obviously doesn’t know a thing about fashion. So …” I looked at her amiably and then peered down at my dress, extending my claws and ripping it to shreds. “Now there is no dress. Oops.” I shrugged.
Ana pressed her lips together to keep from laughing.
“I will pay everyone in here double wages for your time, if you can somehow find a dress more suitable to my tastes,” I told the others. “And yes, I know I’m acting like a spoiled brat, but honestly, would any of you have worn this shit?”
When the other lunas shake their heads, I got my answer.
“Exactly. So, what are my options, ladies?”
Ana smirked. “I have just what yer looking for, Princess.”
I followed her to a closet situated in the back of the room and she opened it to reveal an array of garment bags hanging from the closet rod. She unzipped a couple of them and peered inside until she found the one she was looking for. With a victorious gleam in her eye, she lifted a white garment bag and brought it over to the clothing rack. With a flourish, Ana unzipped the bag the rest of the way to reveal a beautiful, mermaid-style, dark green dress. It was stunning; the absolute opposite of what I was currently wearing.
“I want it,” I breathed, my gray eyes never leaving the dress.
“I knew ye would,” Ana chirped with a satisfied smile wreathing her kind features.
I tore off the tatters of the bubblegum pink dress and tossed it aside, eagerly stepping back onto the circular stand where the lunas galvanized into action, helping me step into the new dress.
It fit like a glove. It was tight from my chest all the way down to just below my knees, where the skirt flared out in a dramatic cascade. The lunas adjusted the measurements and I happily let them do their work as I stood there with my arms held out.
Ana stepped forward with new jewelry to match the dress and I was afraid to touch the gold and emeralds she showed me.
“It’s from yer family’s collection,” she explained.
“How do you have it?” I asked with a raised brow.
She smiled demurely. “I had it brought down the moment we changed yer dress. The jewelry we had before does nae match the emerald tones of yer new dress.”
I nodded, accepting her explanation.
Once the lunas were finished tucking and pinning the dress, they helped me step out of it and I put my jeans and t-shirt back on, feeling comfortable for the first time in hours. After agreeing to meet the lunas back in my room for the final fitting, I left the fitting room to head back to the office.
It had been a week since Bash—my soon to be mate—and I arrived in Scotland, and it had been a whirlwind since the moment our feet touched Scottish soil. With excruciatingly long meeting after meeting, a host of boring social events and parties, and obligations belonging to my soon-to-be-office of Queen of the Lycans, I hadn’t had a moment to myself until … now.
This walk to the office was the only alone time I got. Well, that and any time I went to pee. And I made sure to take an extra-long time peeing. Except the last time I did, some of the King’s Guard came knocking on the bathroom door asking if I was okay. It was beyond embarrassing. I was forced to tell them I was taking a shit. It wasn’t like I cared what they thought, but thankfully they left immediately after. When I returned to the meeting, all eyes were on me. I was pretty sure the guards relayed my message verbatim.
To say I’d been all grace and light since arriving at the castle would be the understatement of the year. Becoming a princess wasn’t easy, but I couldn’t even imagine how much more difficult it would be when it was time for me to be Queen. Which, incidentally, would happen later this week. My coronation was this Sunday and I dreaded it with every fiber of my being. I wished time would slow down and maybe freeze. Because if I could barely handle being a princess, Lord save me once I had the Lycan crown on my head.
I walked dow
n the hall toward the council room, my eyes wandering over the walls lined with portraits of previous MacCoinnich Kings. I couldn’t help but be intimidated every time I passed by. They were all so serious, and I felt like their eyes followed me with each step I took. It was creepy.
I would be the first woman on that wall. I felt like a misfit, and the seriousness of my impending office draped around my neck like an albatross.
I reached the double doors of the council room and stepped inside. Inside, there was a mahogany table that could easily fit twenty people. Today, it held the King’s Council with Alexander at the head—my biological father and the current King of the Lycan. The seat to his right was empty, but Ranulf, his right-hand man, sat at his left. I avoided everyone’s eyes and humbly took my seat by Alexander’s side.
The council room was a blend of a war room and a rich man’s study, complete with the scent of expensive cigars wafting in the air. If I didn’t feel out of place before, sitting beside the King in front of his Council certainly did the trick.
“It’s about time,” Jacob grumbled as I took my seat. Jacob was a member of the Council and a cantankerous old man, to boot. His remaining hair was bristly and gray, with a shiny bald patch atop his head.
I kept quiet because that was what Alexander wanted me to do. Stay quiet and listen. He’d drummed this mantra into my head so many times I’d lost count. So I bit my tongue until it drew blood.
“Now can we start?” Finlay demanded brusquely, slamming his meaty fist on the table. He was the only ginger on the Council. Some of the others had a touch of reddish auburn going on, but Finlay was a full-on ginger, with a fiery temperament to match. “We’ve waited for the Princess, and now she’s here.”
Alexander cleared his throat and straightened his tie before leaning forward. “The meeting is in session. What do we have on the table?”
“The coronation,” Jacob grunted sourly. “The Highlanders should nae be invited. This is nae that kind of affair.”
I edged forward to say something, but Alexander whipped his steely-eyed gaze at me and I stopped. The Highlanders were a pack of feral lunas who lived in the highlands of Scotland, mainly Caledonian Forest, which surrounded Sheunta Village. It was dangerous for the people of Sheunta Village to enter the forest before I came and met with them. They helped me during the Freedom War, and ever since, we’d been working on a treaty to reintegrate them back into society with Alexander. Shutting them out from my coronation was a bad idea.
“The treaty with the Highlanders is very delicate,” Alexander explained diplomatically. “Inviting them to the coronation is a show of good faith that we want them involved in our society again.”
“But we don!” Callum, another member of the Council said. “They’re feral, nothing more than savages! They’re nae civilized.”
My hands fisted under the table and it took every ounce of willpower to keep my claws retracted. They spoke as if they weren’t savages, like they were civilized and had evolved past the point of bloodshed. But deep down, we were all savages. In that regard, we were no better than the Highlanders.
“My decision is final. The Highlanders will be in attendance,” Alexander declared, his voice strong and commanding.
I peered at Alexander with renewed respect. His nearly black hair was wavy, with gray hair peppering the sides. One roguish curl dipped over his forehead, which always reminded me of Superman. Alexander wasn’t bad looking for his age, which I would put around the late forties, maybe early fifties. He had piercing gray eyes that were identical to mine and a MacCoinnich trait, and slight wrinkles on the corners of his eyes when he smiled. But he wasn’t smiling now.
There were murmured grumbles from everyone up and down the length of the table and I was struck with the urge to lash out and make them bend to my will with violence. Half of these old guys couldn’t take me on during their best day. But I knew I needed to calm down. Violence wasn’t the answer to everything. Hell, it wasn’t the answer to anything, even though it was usually my first instinct. At least not here.
“What’s next on the agenda?” Alexander continued the meeting, ignoring the audible dissent from the Council.
“We want to discuss lowering the security in the village,” Finlay suggested. “The threat the Princess claimed upon her arrival has nae been shown. We’re confident the village is safe.” Finlay looked over at me with his condemning green eyes as if he didn’t believe a single thing I said.
Before leaving New York City, I was faced with Úlfur, a Lycan unlike any other we’d ever faced. At first, he pretended to help me with my cases when I worked for the Special Investigative Unit, or the SIU, but slowly his true intentions were revealed. He was after the crown, and apparently, he’d been watching me for a very long time. Why, I had no idea, but the last thing he told me before I left for Scotland was that he’d be following me here. I knew this wasn’t over, and I couldn’t be careless. He was not my friend, but rather a formidable enemy.
Ranulf straightened. “These are serious accusations,” he said. “They should nae be taken lightly.”
“I agree,” Alexander declared, nodding to his right-hand man.
“What proof do we have?” Callum demanded. “The word of a lassie?” he scoffed. “Has anyone seen this so-called wolf god?”
They all started to laugh as if it was all a grand joke. They didn’t believe that Úlfur was Fenrir, the son of Loki and the first wolf. They thought I was lying. Their obvious disregard only angered me further. These old bastards would ruin the Lycan if they didn’t wake up.
After learning that Úlfur was actually Fenrir, I did a little research. Unfortunately, all I came up with was a load of fiction. At least that was what I think it was. I found him mentioned prominently in Norse mythology. The humans recorded him in their histories, but was it true or was it myth? How would I even know? What I did know was that Fenrir was a Lycan and he was stronger than any of us, which meant he was more than met the eye.
The Council’s laughter and lighthearted chatter continued until I couldn’t take it anymore. I slammed my palms on the mahogany table, the sound echoing in the council room and catching the attention of everyone around the table.
“Mackenzie!” Alexander tried to stop me, but I was already standing up. I was done being obedient and keeping quiet. I’d been quiet for a whole week, which had to be a new record.
I glared at each and every one of the Council members and held their gaze a second longer than necessary, establishing dominance. “If you want to risk the lives of everyone in this village,” I shrugged, “then by all means, go ahead and reduce the security. I don’t have a problem with it. I’ll protect what’s mine, and when they come for you, don’t look my way for help, because I’ll let them eat you alive,” I growled.
“Mackenzie.” Alexander placed a hand over mine and urged me to sit down, which I steadfastly refused to acknowledge.
An unsettling quiet descended over the room before Jacob grunted, “Put a leash on that lass, Alexander.”
I snapped my gaze toward him and flashed my silver eyes, baring my canines with no regard for his position within the King’s Council. If they thought the Highlanders were feral, they hadn’t seen nothing yet.
Jacob swallowed loudly and diverted his light blue eyes from mine.
“Anyone else?” I asked the group. “Because this lass is a woman and your future Queen. Show some damn respect.”
Alexander kicked his chair back and stood, placing his hand on my shoulder and pushing me down to take a seat.
“This meeting is adjourned,” he announced. “We’ll see you all at the Blood Moon event.”
The grumbling Council stood from their seats and slowly exited the council room until only me, Alexander, and Ranulf remained. Alexander’s hand was still firmly placed on my shoulder, keeping me in my seat.
“Hells bells, Princess,” Ranulf sighed as he ran a hand through his dark hair.
I kept my glare fixed straight ahead, avoiding
both their gazes. I was too upset to listen and too angry to care. I needed to calm down.
“Darling,” Alexander murmured as he released me. “Ye cannae have those kinds of outbursts. This is nae a dictatorship.”
I scoffed, “I’m not trying to be a dictator, but they have to start showing me some fuckin’ respect! I’m not some little girl running around here exaggerating and telling lies!”
“Language,” Alexander reprimanded. “They will nae take kindly to you establishing dominance over them.”
“So what?” I threw my hands out. “I am dominant, and they need to learn their place.”
I knew what I sounded like, but fuck that. When women were assertive, they were accused of being too aggressive or emotional or whatever. But when a man did it, it was okay. No way. I wasn’t going to soften up because I was a woman and that was expected of me to soothe a male ego.
“We’ve never had a luna as an alpha. This is new territory for everyone, Mackenzie. Have patience,” Alexander pleaded.
I rolled my eyes. Patience? Where was their patience when it came to me? All week long, they’d been talking shit. I had the bite marks on my tongue to prove how much patience I had.
“There’s only so much she can take, Alexander,” Ranulf inserted. I was surprised he backed me up. “Yer lucky ye’ve gotten this far.”
I’d tried really hard this week since moving here, but I hadn’t exactly received a warm welcome from the King’s Council. I didn’t think I ever would. The last thing they wanted was to be run by a luna. Much less a luna who started a rebellion and freed all the lunas from servitude. I wasn’t necessarily known as a rule follower or someone who played well with others. And don’t even get me started on the European Summit. I hadn’t even met with them yet, but correspondence between them and Alexander was frosty. Let’s just say I had my work cut out for me.
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