by Logan Keys
That I’d left the cold, a home I’ve always known, and run straight into the warm blaze of Summer, shows how far from the pack I’ve become. How distant and alone I’ve turned.
“My son.”
“It’s okay, Momma,” I murmur to her blurry outline. But I’m not convinced. Surely this fever and blood loss will end me.
My mother presses a rag to my forehead, something she’s done since I was a cub. “What have they done to you? My sweet boy.”
“Elisa.” My father’s stern tone makes me try to turn my head, but it hurts to move. “Don’t coddle him.”
“Why won’t you stay with the pack, Noble?” she says, ignoring the King. “Why must we keep having these terrible things happen to our family?”
My mother often blames happenstance on bad luck. Ill omens and things of that nature. I was starting to see her point. If there is any wolf in the realm that’s cursed, it’s this one.
“Shhh,” I say, closing my eyes. And later when I wake, I realize I’d dozed off again mid conversation. I find that they are still in my room, arguing.
I try and say, “I’m sorry, don’t fight.” But my voice is too weak. They give me water, and it revives me some. The heat dissipates long enough for me to try to sit up.
My mother’s drawn face tells me that I look as bad as I feel.
“Who did this?” I whisper.
My father, who’s stormy eyes are narrowed on my biggest bandages like he cannot believe what he’s seeing, says, “Lion.”
My father’s voice is almost breaking. I’ve never seen him like this. He clears his throat, returning to the gruff speaker and leader we know him to be. “We’ve already sent a dispatch to Summer. They’ll send us the one who’s done this. If they don’t answer, hell to pay, my boy. Hell. To. Pay.”
He touches my shoulder, but realizes the pain it’s causing, and lets his hand fall away.
“Lion?” I say, not remembering anything. Not yet.
And when I do, hours later, I wake suddenly, pushing straight, despite the pain.
The memory shifts something inside of me, not the attack, that was brutal---the lioness had been relentless, furious that I’d caught her---but what…what had she been doing?
Then it returns in flashes, images of a blinding summer, the prairie set afire by golden grass and a pond, blue amid the yellow, but something’s caught the wolf’s attention. Satiny skin touched by the sun, baked golden bronze, leagues of it. Water sleuths down long legs, drips from wheat colored hair that’s wet and shaped to muscle and softness. A balance of each. Perfection.
The wolf had been trying to get a drink, but it’d watched her---he’d stalked her, as water ran rivulets down her naked body. He’d waited, not out of lust, he’d been there over hunger.
He’d seen her as prey.
But she wasn’t a Spring girl who’d merely shifted into a bunny, no, she was a lion, and when she’d turned and saw me---him, the yellow eyes widened with fury, and the full view of her nakedness, even now, brings fever to my body.
Something about her, even distantly looking through the wolf’s memories, strikes me to the core.
Ferocity.
She’d shifted in an instant and chased me back the way I’d come. Relentless in her pursuit.
The wolf fled for Winter, his tail between his legs, and then, once cornered in the prairie, he’d turned to fight. He would die with honor. Even alone. Knowing without his pack, facing a full-grown lion would be a lost cause.
But she hadn’t been behind him anymore.
The prairie had been empty---or so it had seemed. And when he’d flicked his ears forward, sniffed the air, relaxed his guard, seeing no predator, she’d pounced.
I close my eyes, and cringe, reliving the ripping of my coat, then my skin, sinew and muscle.
She’d pinned me and paused.
Her yellow eyes were the same as before, but now catlike slits watching me, thinking, clearly able to still be both girl and beast. Then she hesitated. She’d given me my life in that second.
A gift of another chance.
No pack would have done that for a lion this far into our realm without invitation. There would have been nothing left of her had she been the one here in our wood instead, running loose, and without protection from us royals.
I lay back on the bed and throw my arm over my eyes. I fight the urge to search the memories again and again. Not the lion. Though, she was beautiful in her form.
The other when she’d turned to face me, baring her form, chin up, shoulders back, wet and bold, and stricken with anger.
I fight the battle of invading on her privacy… and give in so many times, that I lose count.
Chapter 4
Liana
I should feel sheltered, safe, in the sprawling halls of my home. And while normally I do, that emotion evades me today. I sense the tension rise in the room in front of me, behind the closed doors that separate my parents from me. There’s also an eagerness to my father’s other wives, and it is their eagerness that scares me most. Jealous of my mother and me, their strong desire for something my parents are apprehensive about, can’t be good.
At least not for me.
“Liana, they’re ready to see you now,” a house servant says, ushering me inside with an elegance only our pride can embody.
I walk into the room of thrones where four sets of steely eyes watch me.
My mother sits closest to the King. She’s the strongest of the queens, making her the most powerful person in all of the realms.
When I bow, it’s to her. My father is next, and the other lesser queens after.
My mother’s eyes dance across my face as she pulls her lips down into a slight frown. “We’ve received a message from the wolves,” she says, not meandering over nonessential business.
I stand erect, chin up. “So, they’ve captured their rogue? Good. Hopefully he won’t come around again--”
“Liana.” The harsh whisper of my name stops me and I grow silent. “It says that you attacked their wolf. That he’s barely recovering,” my mother says, her voice stern, her features hard, but her fingers twist on her lap, worrying the fabric of her dress.
“He surprised me. I was bathing. I only…”
“Liana!” My father’s voice cracks like thunder, the echoes reverberating in the large room. He rises, pacing in front of my mother and the other queens. The wildness behind his stare makes my insides tremble, but I hide my emotions from everyone in the room so as not to show any weakness. “They ask for us to turn over the idiot lion who’s attacked their son, Liana. The son of the Royals of Winter.”
“Son of the Royals?” I repeat, unsure if I heard him correctly.
Thinking back to that day, I try to remember the wolf, but it had all happened so fast. I was bathing in the warm water. A wolf darted through the brush. It was a rogue off his mark, out of his realm, and although I didn’t know that immediately, I protected myself.
“That wolf had been watching me,” I stammer. “He was out of bounds.”
My mother stands beside my father and he takes her hand when her knuckles brush over his. A heavy sigh falls from her lips before she explains the gravity of the situation. “He was heir to the Winter throne. Noble.”
My mind races, but I fall into silence, letting the drumming in my chest fill me with dread.
“If their demands are not met, there will be war,” one of the other queens chimes in.
Her eagerness for me to go to Winter is obvious and I bite my tongue so as not to remind her of her rank in our family and infuriate my father further. Her daughter, Lia was named so directly after my birth, because everything with the queens is competition.
Not my mother, of course. She’s superior, the one the other two copy. They vie for her attention, and for the King’s.
Lia lost rank to me last year, and our elder sister Calla, who’s also my senior, lost rank to me just before the wolf found me. Bathing.
Battle adrenaline
still moves the lion’s share through me.
I suck in a deep breath and try to sound diplomatic. My father, who always reminds me I need to learn to be a better leader, that I need to find a more constructive outlet for my anger, waits for the brewing rage to spill from me. Steadying my nerves, I look to my father and then meet my mother’s attentive gaze.
“He was…watching me bathe.”
My mother gives me a half smile. She knows how private I am, which is my one trait that makes me stand apart from the pride who shares everything. Too often for my liking. I wrinkle my nose thinking about it, but straighten it when my mother shoots me a disapproving glare.
Lions are passionate, but I’m past that. Reigning in my emotions drains me, but still I stand tall and wait for them to issue their final command on my life.
Unease settles in the room. My parents approach me, their front united as they clasp onto one another. The strain behind my mother’s hazel eyes tells me more than I care to know. I bow my head, thoughts coursing through me, unnerving the confidence that’s always been a part of me. And I know, deep in my bones, I have nothing to fear. I’m their favorite. The one destined to command over the realms.
Chapter 5
Liana
Frustrated, I storm out of the great hall, finally letting my temper loose. A non-decision, I huff, remembering my parents’ words. They’ve decided to discuss it further with the King and Queen of Winter as if there’s anything to discuss.
Crede, a longtime friend and the man I know I’m destined to rule beside, waits for me, a wary smile crossing over his handsome face as I stomp over to him. His strong arms encircle me immediately, and I rest my face against his sturdy chest where I listen to the drumming of his heart beating.
“What if they send you? To the wolf court?” he asks, resting his chin on my head.
I draw in my brows in disgust. “You think my mother would sell me to the wolves? Crede, you’ll be a rug on a hunter’s floor before that happens.”
“You still believe in the realm of man?” he mocks, his voice tinged with a bit of humor. “That’s for children.”
Again, silence folds its warm arms around me and I don’t tell him about what I saw as a child. About the hunter. About the truths I know.
The realm of man isn’t a fairy tale.
Needing space, I step away from his embrace and walk through the open wood doors that lead outside. With his hands behind his back, Crede follows me out into the sun, his golden hair catching in the light. I stop and face him, tension twisting my gut. I open my mouth to speak, but not yet having found my voice I choke on the words.
“You hurt a wolf cub, who really cares?” he asks, not understanding the reality of my situation.
Bringing my hand to my lips, I start biting my nails. “He wasn’t a cub. He was big. A Royal.”
Not wanting to meet his gaze, I look down and mentally chastise myself. Because I should’ve noticed. I shouldn’t have been so stupid.
“How do we even know he was rogue and not a spy?” Crede shakes his golden mane, and brown eyes twinkle with mischief as he tries to joke in a meek attempt at making me feel better. “If it only takes pretending rogue to see you bathe, Liana…”
“Don’t even, Crede,” I mutter under my breath and stalk away from him.
Bellowing laughter follows my every step so I walk faster, suddenly needing to put some distance between us. He catches up with long, easy strides, and his closeness both annoys and soothes me. While I understand his sudden growing attachment, I can’t help but also resent it.
Crede’s going to be King. He doesn’t even have to wait for my father to pass. He has far too many wins, and my father won’t fight him once he’s ready to challenge. Out of respect for me, for my own affections he hopes to possess, Crede has remained patient.
But even the most patient man can’t resist the pull for something more, for something greater.
With one rash act, I’ve endangered my future as Queen of all the Realms. And wife to the beautiful lionheart.
He’s not the usual gruff male; he’d let me rule as my mother has. He’d spoil me, and not make me hunt for him. But I would, because I love to hunt. The chase, the thrill, the freedom.
It would be perfect.
One house…three women.
That part - that’s the part I’ve never liked. Sharing my life, my love with Lia and Calla. All under one roof. Our children would play together.
It’s the way of the pride.
Lia and Crede have already been promised and they’ll be wed soon. Calla will follow. And I would be next.
The idea makes my palms sweaty. I would be the most important, the one he truly honors. Yet, the thought of any of this actually coming to fruition terrifies me. It’s what I’ve always wanted. What I’m furious about losing.
Still the pull for something else tugs me. The need to be with my pride fights for position with the desire for something…else.
It’s silly really. I won’t even bathe near the males or females. I want to be more part of the pride but…
And now I’ve attacked a royal wolf.
For a long time, there was a joke that spread through the pride like wild fire. They ribbed on me, everyone saying I was the first rogue we’d had in three generations. The memory of it churns my stomach, because although I’ve never voiced my concerns, I think there might be some truth to it.
Especially after this debacle with the wolf.
My parents will no doubt leverage this against me. Try to use it to force my hand into marrying Crede. Immediately.
It’s my only option. I try to remind myself it’s what I want. What I’ve always wanted, but even to me, it tastes like a bitter lie.
“Liana.” Crede brushes his knuckles across my cheek, pulling me from the spinning thoughts running haphazardly in my head.
“I can’t do this right now, Crede,” I stammer out, inching a step away from him. “There’s too much going on in here.” I tap a finger to my temple.
He nods, and a radiant smile breaks across his face. “Then let’s get you out of that crazy head of yours.”
In the second it takes me to blink, to momentarily shut my eyes and open them again, Crede changes. His golden mane now covers his glorious lion body, his clothes lying a rumpled mess on the ground beneath his four legs. Brown eyes watch me, their gaze lazy as he waits for me to make a decision.
“Turn around,” I say.
Crede tilts his head to the side and sits on his rump as his tail swishes, making the leaves rustle at the contact. Familiar in this childish game we play, we each stick to our roles.
“Crede.”
He yawns, arrogance vibrating off him when he stands up to nuzzle my hand with his wet nose.
“You’re impossible,” I mumble.
Although I normally undress in front of Crede before I change, I leave my clothes on this time. He hisses and I shoot him a knowing smile.
I feel the shift, the intimacy between myself and the awakening lion as I transform.
Fierce. Majestic. Spirited.
On four legs, I glide forward, with Crede beside me. I give him a sideways glance and because our spirits are in tune with the other, we sprint toward the line of trees in unison.
My muscles stretch and I run faster. The pads of my feet dig into the soft ground and for the first time today, I feel in charge. Like my future is still unwritten. Like I may have a say in what lies before me.
Always my protector, Crede runs beside me, letting me guide us past the tall trees until we reach the plains.
He pushes his head to my neck and I ease myself down onto the glistening grass. He peers down at me. Fire burns behind his eyes and I feel the power swimming inside this magnificent creature I always thought was destined to be mine.
Chapter 6
Liana
It annoys me how closely Lia follows behind Crede and me. Like she can’t wait for the future that’s been paved for her. As if continuously coming in
second to me, always trailing behind me, is a success of sorts. I scoff. As if I want to share my home with a houseful of women who are inferior to me in everything but their title.
“Be nice,” Crede grumbles under his breath, the deep rumble of his voice reaches me, and I avert my eyes for only a second before I meet his gaze.
“Don’t you ever get tired of this?” I ask under my breath. “Our whole lives are orchestrated, each detail thought out before we were even born.”
Thick eyebrows shoot to his forehead. “Would you do anything differently, Liana? Would you choose differently?” he clarifies.
“No,” I reply without hesitating. “Or I don’t think I would. Maybe, I don’t know because I was never given the option to choose.”
Abruptly, Crede stops walking and his large hand grips around my waist. “I don’t understand you. This -” he waves his unused hand around us – “is what you want. To rule our pride, to rule all the realms. It’s all you’ve talked about since we were cubs. There’s only one way to get what you want.”
“Marriage,” I reply.
“You say it as if marrying me was a bad thing.”
“It’s not,” I argue without any real vehemence behind my words.
“Is it at least better than marrying a wolf?” he tries to joke.
“Royal or not, no one’s marrying some rogue wolf, least of all me,” I bite back.
He chuckles, a deep rumble that starts in his belly and I smile back at him. He leans into me, his breath inches from my ear and I close my eyes at the sudden shudder in my body. “Just think of all the times you’ll be able to see me naked once we’re married.”
Laughter builds and explodes from within while his words settle and tense in my gut. “You’ve already seen me naked more times than I’d like anyone to know about.”
Heat emanates from my body as I flush at the hunger behind his gaze. The reminder of the intimacy we’ve shared makes me feel powerful in this moment. Wanted and desirable.
