by Lila Felix
About This Book
Welcome to Havenwood Falls, a small town in the majestic mountains of Colorado. A town where legacies began centuries ago, bloodlines run deep, and dark secrets abound. A town where nobody is what you think, where truths pose as lies, and where myths blend with reality. A place where everyone has a story. This is only but one . . .
Being the alpha’s queen is the last thing Atlas Belham has ever wanted. Yet here she stands, blindfolded and binding herself to a life with a man she’s never even met. All for the good of her people.
Harrison Xavier’s plans have never included taking a mate, ever. He’s perfectly happy to allow his cousin to assume his place as leader, especially as old feuds reignite and the black bear kingdom teeters on the edge of revolution. But when he sees Atlas, his whole world shifts.
Life as a royal and in her new hometown of Havenwood Falls, where nothing is as it seems, test Atlas’s resolve, but it’s Harrison who tries her the most. It’s ultimately up to her to choose—freedom and independence for herself or peace for the kingdom.
Alpha’s Queen
A Havenwood Falls Novella
Lila Felix
Contents
Havenwood Falls Books
Other books by Lila Felix
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
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Havenwood Falls Books
Forget You Not by Kristie Cook
Old Wounds by Susan Burdorf
Fate, Love & Loyalty by E.J. Fechenda
Covetousness by Randi Cooley Wilson
The Winged & the Wicked by T.V. Hahn & Kristie Cook
Alpha’s Queen by Lila Felix
Ink & Fire by R.K. Ryals (Dec. 2017)
More books releasing on a monthly basis
Also try the YA series, Havenwood Falls High
Stay up to date at www.HavenwoodFalls.com and subscribe to our newsletter
Other books by Lila Felix
Emerge
Perchance
The Love and Skate Series
Sparrows For Free
Seeking Havok
Hoax
Doves for Sale
AnguiSH
HeartBreaker
The Forced Autonomy Series
The Bayou Bear Chronicles
His Haunted Heart
Dethroning Crown
Tipping the Scales
The Second Chance Romance Series
Doll of Mine
The Supernatural Chronicles: Skinwalker
Copyright © 2017 Lila Felix, Ang’dora Productions, LLC
All rights reserved.
Published by
Ang’dora Productions, LLC
5621 Strand Blvd, Ste 210
Naples, FL 34110
Havenwood Falls and Ang’dora Productions and their associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Ang’dora Productions, LLC.
Cover design by Regina Wamba at MaeIDesign.com
Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the owner of this book.
Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and events are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Created with Vellum
To all those who wish to shift and be free like bears.
Chapter 1
Atlas
The lined white lace blindfold lay across the bed, mocking me. Even the bed mocked me with its pristine white coverings and golden accents along the wrought iron frame.
I wondered if this would be my bedroom—our bedroom.
“Is he that ugly? I don’t get this tradition.”
My best friend Samantha snickered from the corner of the room. “It would be easier to name the ones we do understand. I think this is more of a Havenwood Falls thing than a shifter thing.”
“Is he ugly? Is he mean? Will he hate me? I hope he does.” My voice held a desperation I hadn’t known I was capable of. At this point, one might expect my mother to speak up and give me a few words of encouragement. As was usual for her, she remained silent, oblivious.
“You do not,” Samantha said. “And even if he is ugly, you can just reap the rewards. I mean, there’s the status and the money. Hell, if he’s that big of a prick, you can get your needs met elsewhere, you know. I’m sure there’s a yummy jester around, just waiting to make sure the future alpha’s queen is satisfied.”
My best friend was not a prude, that was for sure.
“There’s no jester, Sam. This isn’t the Victorian era.”
She scoffed. “Could’ve fooled me. All these rules . . . and that dress costs more than my rent for the year.”
At least she could do that—pay her own rent. I was sure I’d never have to pay another bill while I was here. It was a little thing, but I liked the little things in life.
She was right about the dress. Swarovski crystals and pearls cluttered the lithe fabric from shoulders to hem. The style was modest to the point of almost being old-fashioned. There wasn’t an inch of skin from my wrists down to my ankles that peeked out. The lace around my collar was crowned with a string of heavy pearls. They weren’t as heavy as the deal I’d made to marry a stranger.
“It isn’t worth it.”
She turned me around to face her. “Don’t say that, Atlas. We both know what this means to our people. The classes won’t be divided anymore. There won’t be the rich shifters and the poor shifters. You are changing everything. Trust me, it’s worth ninety days of pain and punishment.” She laughed, but I did not.
I sighed and looked at myself in the mirror. I was a cinnamon bear shifter, and we were considered the lesser of the two types of black bear shifters, even though we were technically the same species. Cinnamon bears simply didn’t change from brown to black after puberty. Other than our hair color, we were the exact same bear. My light brown hair glistened in the sun that peeked through the moving curtains. The hairdressers had worked a full three hours on it. They didn’t touch the color. It proved what I was and the reason why I was marrying the Black Bear Clan’s next alpha.
“I don’t want to change everything, Sammy. I just want to find a worthy male who loves me. I don’t want to be an example or a bridge. Someone called me that the other day, by the way. She told me ‘thank you for being the bridge,’ like I was some inanimate thing that people walked over from one side of a dirty river to the other.”
I looked at the reflection of my mother, who was already three sheets to the wind and working on the fourth. She didn’t care. All she knew was the Xaviers had paid off our mortgage and my student loans—a dowry of sorts. The velvet lounge chair she rested in hu
gged her hips and gave her an excuse to keep chugging down the rum in her glass.
Sammy’s hands were on my shoulders before the crying could start. She always knew when I was about to crack open.
“You’re not an inanimate object, and anyway, I heard that Harrison is hot as fuck. And just as a bonus, he has a fine booty, too. They blindfold you so you don’t slobber on him during the ceremony.”
No matter how hard I tried, there was no fighting Sammy’s wit. Plus, the laugh made me feel better—a little. Laughing made my breath captive in the veil that began as an adorned piece atop my head and extended below my chin. I looked like I had a fishing net stretched over my face.
Hot or not, I just wanted to be a nurse, find a mate, buy a house, and have some cubs. “This isn’t right. I can’t talk to people. I can’t make decisions that will affect all of us. What if I fuck everything up?”
“You probably will. But, we all do, right?”
“Yeah, especially you.”
“Hey! I kind of like not being perfect.”
“I like you not perfect, too.” I wrapped my arms around my best friend and hoped to the Creator that it wasn’t the last time we would embrace like this. She’d be allowed to visit me, but only when I requested her presence.
Ninety days was all I had to last. That was the stipulation in the agreement. I didn’t know what was going to happen to the kingdom in those ninety days, and frankly, I didn’t care. Their offer of monetary gain and peace among our people was too tempting to pass up—even if I hated every second of this setup.
“It’s not that long. I can make it, right?”
She hugged me tighter. She was crying now, too. Her body shook against me as she sobbed. “They let me meet him last night, At.”
I pulled back, shocked by her confession. “What the hell? Why didn’t you tell me? I was wondering how you knew what he looked like. I thought you were just trying to make me feel better.”
“They told me not to. But I couldn’t keep it from you. He’s . . . he’s not what you think. That’s all I’m going to say. You won’t have any trouble lasting the ninety days. Treat this like a real mating. Trust me.”
I did.
I just didn’t trust my mate-to-be.
A knock sounded at the door. A pith of a girl in a pale pink dress told us that it was almost time. Almost time to go.
“Well, let’s not drag this out.” Sammy reached to straighten my veil again and kissed me on the cheeks.
“One day maybe . . .”
“Don’t even say it, Atlas. It’s just a few days, and then you will be free of this place.”
I fisted the sleeve of her dress, not willing to let her go yet.
“All of this is ridiculous. This castle. This wedding. This dress. These rules. What kind of alpha won’t let my best friend attend my wedding?”
“It’s all about numbers, Atlas. You know that. Your mom will be there along with some servants. That many cinnamon bears under one roof is probably making the alpha squirm enough without adding one more to the mix.”
She stepped away, but before her hand touched the door, she looked over her shoulder at me. “You have to change things, Atlas. At the very least, you have to try.”
The girl who had summoned me still stood at the door, staring at me as though I’d just given birth to an alien. “Is something wrong?” I asked, checking myself over in the mirror.
“No, ma’am. Is it true? You’ve come to help us?” Her question was barely audible.
Sammy and I looked at each other in shock. My stomach rolled as I realized the shake in this girl’s voice wasn’t from speaking to me, but rather what she alluded to.
“I’m going to try.”
Trying was the only thing I could promise.
Chapter 2
Harrison
Every time my father, the alpha, paced from one side of the room to another, he took a glance at himself in the mirror. It was like watching the most conceited ballerina on the planet.
“Dad, could you please stop? You’re making me nervous and frankly driving me bat— Just crazy.”
He tossed a look over his shoulder telling me not only would he not stop, but that I’d better shut up about it as well. I learned that look at an early age.
“We have to make this work, Harrison. The people—the lesser ones—they are making it hard on us. They reject our decisions. They resist. We have to earn their trust again, or our dynasty is in jeopardy. I’m not sure you’re taking this seriously enough.”
What my father didn’t understand was that I didn’t give a fuck if the dynasty fell down around us and burned to the ground. The only thing I had my sights set on was waiting out the end of my father’s reign. Whether it be by death or the frailty of old age, he would have to give up on his tyranny one day, and even if he did offer me the position of alpha, which he would not, I would not accept. I was content to allow Dolrich to take my place as his shadow, hoping that my father would favor him in place of me. Dolrich would be our new alpha, even if my father didn’t quite grasp it yet.
Not that he really favored me all that much in the first place.
A knock at the door finally stopped my father from pacing and made me immediately stand at attention. This was it. It was time for me to be married to someone I didn’t know.
Ridiculous. All of it.
“It’s just me. Stand down.” Dolrich opened the door and closed it behind him quickly. He was wearing a similar tux to mine, except my tie and handkerchief were gold, signifying my rank as in line for alpha. His was purple, which showed he was royalty.
I knew that my new mate would be wearing a gold garter underneath her pristine white dress.
Hey, I had to get happy about something in this disastrous day.
“Dolrich, you scared the f— You scared me.”
The alpha didn’t appreciate vulgar language in his presence. Too bad fuck was my favorite word. The last time I said damn in front of him, he reached over and covered my mother’s ears. She didn’t even blink an eye. Mother’s favorite word was ass.
Dolrich bared his neck a little for the intrusion. “Sorry. I came to wish you luck. I’ve heard she’s a looker. They are almost ready for you.”
A looker. Sometimes looks were just not enough.
My dad bowed up. It seemed he took offense at everything anyone said lately, and my cousin wasn’t immune to his defensiveness. “You think I would choose anything less for the next alpha? His queen must be honorable and beautiful.”
One of Dolrich’s eyebrows raised at me. Dad was insane. Plus, I gave zero fucks about being the next alpha. Any other eligible male could have it. Hell, any of them could have this female I was supposed to be joined to in the next hour. It would be a stiff and cold coupling, just like anyone else’s in this family.
Royals didn’t marry for love. They married for position, or in my case, for political leverage. My father’s attitude and general orders that oppressed the lesser bears of our species had been earning him some backlash in the last decade or so. He thought marrying me off to one of them would be a balm to their wounds.
He might have been right.
He might have been off his fucking rocker.
“Of course not, Alpha. I was simply trying to ease my cousin’s nerves a little. He’s practically shaking,” Dolrich replied.
Was not.
My dad crossed his arms over his chest. “There’s nothing for him to be nervous about. Alphas don’t get nervous. We stand up and get things done. This isn’t emotional. It’s his duty.”
Another knock came at the door. This time all three of us squared our shoulders for the event to come. I knew it was one of the servants before he even spoke.
“It’s time, Alpha.”
My father nodded once. Thad, my father’s private butler, shut the door with a bow.
“Dolrich, do you mind if I have a word with my son before the ceremony? It will be quick. Please tell everyone that we will be there shortly.”
Dolrich bowed a little. “Of course, Alpha. Good luck, Harrison.”
The bastard winked at me.
I rolled my eyes at him.
As soon as the door was shut, the alpha was in front of me in the body that used to be my father. He was stiff again. His voice grew cold. His eyes emptied. His jaw clenched.
“This is the day you begin your role as the future alpha. Taking this female is your promise to keep those other bears in line. It is a sacrifice, I know, but it has to be done. We can’t have an uprising on our hands. There will be time to mate with her, but the blood rites must be done tonight. You understand? I won’t be embarrassed by an unmarked daughter-in-law. Is that clear? I mean it this time, Harrison. I realize you don’t have the strength or the gumption to become the alpha I am, but at least you could put on the façade of one. I shouldn’t even have to tell you this. You are my son. This should come to you like breathing.”
Though everything in me wanted to buck against his system, I bared my neck in respect. “Yes, Alpha. I understand my duty.”
“Well, blind obedience will do in the absence of true loyalty for the meantime. You need to make a decision while you are up there securing a future for yourself with this marriage. Dolrich is tough and commanding, unlike you. If not for me, he would’ve challenged you to a fight for the future seat as alpha already. I was giving you a chance to become what you were born to be. While you are taking this—” he flicked his hand in the air “—mate today, think about who it is that will take my place when I am gone. Think very hard if you want to give up on your legacy—the legacy of your family.”
