The Royal Shifters Complete Series Boxed Set

by Alice Wilde

  I turn, searching, and find him back in human form, still lying where he was thrown. He’s covered himself with the piece of fur again.

  I hesitate, my heart throbbing in my chest. I don’t want to leave Rosa behind, but I know there’s nothing I can do for her right now. Not in present circumstances. I look at Damien, who I only just realize has released my arm in favor of the royal scepter. The priest is lowering my father’s crown on to Damien’s head.

  The crowd is standing, chanting. Like a curse.

  “Long live the king! Long live King Damien!”

  With the sudden turn of events, everyone’s attention is on Damien. I see Roan and Ero making their way quickly down the aisle as Li slowly rises to his feet, his human form even larger than that of his leopard. He reaches out a hand toward me.

  I turn to give Rosa a look I hope she understands, a plea to forgive me for what I’m about to do. A promise to return. She smiles back at me, nods, and then turns to kiss Luca’s cheek.

  She’ll survive. She has to.

  I turn and step cautiously down and away from the throne, not daring to look back. Praying I can make it far enough from Damien unnoticed to escape.

  “Run, Annalise. Run!” Roan, Ero, and Li yell in my head.

  And I do.

  I take Li’s hand and we make our way down the aisle toward the back of the Great Hall. Just as we reach the doorway, I hear Damien shout.

  “Guards!”

  “Forgive me for this,” Li grunts.

  I’m swung through the air as Li lifts me up and over his shoulder with ease. His movements are graceful and fluid, nothing like Damien’s. His body is hard, but his gait is smooth, and I feel more like I’m being rocked than carried, though I’m not a fan of the way I’m being held, bent over at the waist. Li has wrapped one arm around the back of my knees and his other hand is digging into my buttocks, almost painfully. I’m not even sure if he realizes what he’s doing, but it’s very noticeable to me and I react as such, swatting at his hand with as much accuracy as I can manage from my position.

  Li growls but removes his hand, lowering it to my upper thigh. I instantly regret my actions as I suddenly find myself thumping up and down against the edge of his shoulder. This will certainly cause more than a little bruising. I want to tell him to clutch at my rear again, but I can’t quite manage it with the air constantly being knocked out of me.

  “Stop him, he’s kidnapped the queen!” Damien’s shout echoes through the chamber, but we’ve already slipped out of the Great Hall. I can hear the chaos ensuing behind us as the guests and guards spring into action. Somehow, Damien’s voice still carries above the noise and to our ears even as we fly down the passageway.

  “A reward to the first man to bring back the queen. Alive!”

  Ero and Roan have already burst through the kitchen doors and out into the courtyard. I know this only because I can hear the screaming from the servants ahead of us and the smell of roast pheasant is heavy in the air. They’ll just have to enjoy that feast without me.

  The sun has already dipped below the horizon as Li ducks to let us out into the evening air. He pauses for a second and I manage to suck in a breath.

  “Put me down.”

  “Apologies, princess, but I can’t. Not yet,” Li says before bolting toward the section of the wall with my hidden escape.

  Ero and Roan have already scaled the wall and are peering down at us, but soon disappear over the other side as we hear guards yelling and filing out of the castle toward us. Li sets me on the ground as gently as possible.

  “Go through the tunnel. I’ll meet you on the other side,” Li says as he jumps at the wall, grabbing at a piece of stone that is jutting out and begins to climb.

  I run over to the vines but glance behind me. The guards are not far off, but being part of the outdoor regiment, their armor is slowing them down significantly. I quickly turn back to the wall and pull back the vines…but nothing’s there. The hole I had used to escape for so many years is gone, replaced by a new set of stones. My heart leaps into my throat, and for a moment I’m afraid I won’t be able to speak, let alone call for help.

  “Li!” I gasp, the words barely audible in my own ears.

  The ground trembles around me and I am almost unbalanced. Before I can make sense of anything, a muscular arm has wrapped around me, swinging me up and over.

  “Hold on!” Li growls.

  I just barely manage to lock my arms around Li’s neck before he’s once again scrambling up the wall. My stomach twists as I look down at the ground that’s quickly growing further away. Li’s moving with such skill and rapidity up the face of the wall that I can’t help but be in awe. His back muscles ripple underneath me, sweat glistening on his skin. I want to kiss him. Then I feel my grip slipping. We’ve nearly reached the top of the massive wall, but my strength is giving out under the weight of my heavy dress and the movements of Li’s body.

  “No!” I scream just as my hold on him releases. For a split second, I’m sure my life has come to an end. Time seems to slow as I focus on the ground far below, filled with guards rushing toward us as well as those running for the castle gates. I see Damien pushing his way out of the castle as wedding guests flood out to watch. Then, a large hand tightens around my wrist and I swing hard into the wall. The wind is knocked out of me, but I’m no longer falling. I look up into Li’s worried face. Long strands of black hair have freed themselves from his bun, framing his face in a way that somehow makes him even more attractive. He pulls me up with an effortlessness that should frighten me.

  “You’re a never-ending source of worry for me, you know?” Li says, but I can tell he’s talking more to himself than to me.

  “Sorry,” I say.

  “Sorry?” Li questions and then shakes his head. “Oh, you weren’t supposed to hear that last comment. Damien’s coming. We have to hurry. No time to talk.”

  Grabbing my hand, Li pulls me to across the wall to the other side and we look down, my stomach flipping over once again. I’m definitely not one for heights.

  “We’re going to have to jump,” says Li.

  “I can’t.”

  “Of course you can’t, but you’re going to have to trust me. Wait.”

  Li lets go of my hand and grabs at my skirts.

  “What are you doing?” I ask as I jump away from him.

  “Trust me, okay? Don’t move. Once Damien’s through that crowd, he’ll be able to scale the wall just as easily as we can…”

  “Okay.”

  Li takes my skirts in his hands once again and rips them apart with ease, creating two long slits in the dress that reach up nearly to my groin.

  “You’re going to have to hold onto me with all your strength. Wrap your legs around my waist and don’t let go, no matter what.”

  Before I can respond, I’m once again swung up and onto Li’s back, but this time I lock myself in place with both my arms and my legs.

  “Good.”

  Li takes several steps back and then bolts for the edge of the wall, leaping over the battlements. I glance over my shoulder to see Damien casting people aside as though he were parting an ocean, but then all I see is sky and the tops of the castle as Li and I fall.

  I want to close my eyes, but I can’t. My stomach clenches, but then I feel something strange that draws my attention. The body that I’ve been holding onto so desperately is shifting beneath me. Li’s golden skin is now covered with soft fur and his neck has grown much thicker, almost too thick to maintain my hold on him.

  The dirt rises to meet us and I finally manage to close my eyes, but I never feel the landing. Opening my eyes, I see the grass flying beneath us as Li races toward the forest where Ero and Roan are waiting. I raise myself slightly to look around, but quickly flatten myself against Li’s back once again as a thin branch whips across my face. We’re in the forest. The tightness in my stomach gives way to relief as the castle grows further and further away. The speed with which we’re moving
is outstanding, far faster than a frightened horse.

  It takes me a moment to realize we’ve come to a standstill beside my clearing in the forest. I slide down from Li’s back as he shifts back into human form. He’s naked, but I only manage to catch a glimpse of his bare chest. He turns away before my eyes can slip any lower, but now, I’m staring wide-eyed at his backside. It takes all my effort to pull my eyes away from him, but I do after a loud clearing of Li’s throat startles me. I can feel my face burning red. His body is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, the muscles thick and well-defined, but at the same time lean and lithe. He’s exactly what you’d imagine the body of a large cat to look like in human form. I want to look again, to keep staring as I drink in his image. This all feels more like a dream than real life.

  “Annalise,” Li says, “would you please come here?”

  “I…uh…you’re naked.”

  “I know. Would you mind giving me part of your dress to cover up with? I wouldn’t ask, but I have nothing else at the moment.”

  “What happened to the fur you were wearing?”

  “Clothing doesn’t shift with us. Every time we shift, we lose anything we’re wearing, except for this ridiculous collar.”

  “Oh gods, I forgot! Did I hurt you before? I mean, while I was holding onto you?”

  “Nothing more than was necessary. Now, would you please let me cover up? You can gawk all you want afterward.”

  The blood rushes to my face once again as I realize I’ve been contentedly staring at his tight rear end once again.

  “Of course!” I say as I rush over to him, keeping my eyes lowered to the ground as best I can.

  I am suddenly aware of Roan and Ero making strange sounds behind me, as though they are laughing. At least, as close to laughing as a large cat can.

  I turn my head away to give Li privacy as he tears away the bottom section of my skirt and wraps the cloth around his waist. I instantly feel lighter, the weighted pieces of my dress now gone, but a part of me feels an awkward disappointment as I realize that this means Li’s new outfit has little chance of malfunctioning.

  Gods, I think to myself, how can I suddenly be so cringeworthy? I try hard to think of something to say and finally find one.

  “Why have we stopped?” I ask.

  “Up until this point, this is as far as we’ve ever managed to stray from Damien, or nearly as far. Perhaps you remember the other day by the stream.”

  “How could I forget?” I say as I am overwhelmed by the knowledge of how often I’ve been blissfully naked in front of them. “But you never watched.”

  “What?”

  “Oh,” I say, blushing. “I mean, you never watched me while I was less than clothed.”

  “No.”

  “Why?” I’m not sure why I ask or why I feel hurt by his frankness, but something in me wishes he had watched.

  “It didn’t feel right,” Li says, “to watch you while you didn’t know we were more than just animals.” Li’s eyes shift from me to the two leopards who are pacing behind me. “We need to make some decisions.”

  “What kind of decisions?” I ask.

  “Where you’re going to go.”

  “Where I’m going to go? Don’t you mean us?”

  “I’m afraid not,” says Li. “With these collars around our necks, we can’t go much further before Damien’s power over us will either stop us or kill us.”

  “But I can’t go alone! I have no one, nowhere to go! This is as far as I’ve ever ventured from the castle!”

  I want to burst into tears. I’ve only just met Li, but I don’t want to be separated from him or Roan or Ero.

  “Why are Ero and Roan still leopards? Those are their names, right?” I ask, changing the subject as I try to buy more time to plan.

  “I honestly don’t know, but yes, those are their names.”

  I’m not sure what to say next. The moon is rising and I turn toward the clearing, abruptly feeling drawn to lie among the wildflowers and cry. Yes, I want to escape Damien, but I didn’t think I’d have to do it alone.

  “Wait, Annalise!”

  Li grabs at me, but I step into the clearing and he doesn’t follow.

  The blue flowers turn silver in the moonlight and appear to twinkle as I walk through them. Fireflies spin through the air like little stars and the smell of sweet grass fills my nose. I don’t want to experience this alone. I won’t be separated from my leopards. I rush back to the edge of the clearing and grab Li’s wrist, trying to drag him into the clearing with me, but he resists.

  “Come on,” I say, grunting as I pull against his unmoving body.

  “I can’t. We can’t.”

  “What do you mean you can’t?” I ask, glancing over at Roan and Ero.

  “The other day,” Li begins, twisting his arm out from my grasp, “when you entered the clearing, Ero tried to follow but was burned. There’s a magic about this place…a lightness…and I think it will quite literally try to burn the black magic out of us.”

  “Isn’t that a good thing?”

  “Not if it kills us in the process.”

  “Your collar, why don’t you take it off?”

  Li laughs, shaking his head. “You don’t think we’ve tried? If anyone except Damien tries to remove it, the wretched thing will start to tighten and won’t stop until we leave it alone. The same thing happens if we try to run too far.”

  I frown, finally understanding why they have to let me continue on my own. There’s no escape for them, and all their efforts will be in vain if I don’t get away. Either way, they’ll be punished without mercy.

  “I can’t go on without you,” I mutter. “Perhaps the magic here won’t kill you. Will you try?”

  I step backward into the clearing, looking hopefully at Li and the two leopards.

  Li shakes his head. “No, it’s too dangerous. If the magic kills me, there’d be no possibility of protecting you in the future.”

  I want to protest, but a thundering crash startles me as one of the leopards leaps through the clearing’s tree-lined barrier.

  I rush to him, but a black smoke, not unlike the darkness that had only recently been lifted from my own mind, is rising from his body, filling the clearing with the stench of sulfur.

  “No,” I cry as I fall to my knees beside the body. A body. As the thick smoke clears, I’m left staring at a beautiful, silvery-haired man. Ero. My mind flashes back to my childhood and that fateful day in the clearing. Blood is trickling from beneath his leather collar and I reach out a shaking hand toward him. I half expect the skin to be cold to the touch, but it’s silky and warm.

  I try to turn him over, but he’s far too heavy. I look over at Li and Roan who are both watching from the edge of the clearing.

  “Is he dead?” Li asks.

  “I…I think he might be,” I say quietly.

  Roan lets out a deep, moaning roar and I feel the earth start to quake beneath me as though a stampede of horses were heading our way.

  “Roan. Quiet. You’ll alert everyone to our presence.”

  Roan whimpers but quiets himself and the ground slowly stops trembling.

  I turn back to Ero and brush the hair from his face. His eyes are closed, but he remains unmoving.

  “I’m sorry,” I say as tears roll down my cheeks. “I didn’t mean for you to die.”

  My fingers slowly trace his jaw and then glide down his neck, stopping at the collar.

  “At least in death, you should be free.”

  I unclasp the material and wait, but nothing happens. I let it fall to the ground. Deep red marks encircle the entirety of Ero’s neck. I lean down and kiss his cheek before sitting back on my heels. The moonlight caresses every line of his back, the muscles strong and powerful like waves on the ocean. His butt…gods. Wait, no, that’s exactly it. Ero and Li are built like gods. Perfect in every way. I sigh as run my fingers lightly across his skin. I flatten my hand against the curve of his lower back.

  �
��Thank you for everything.”

  I want to keep staring at Ero. Even in death, he’s glorious. It takes all my will not to grab his butt. I shift uncomfortably at the thought, and not for the impropriety of it.

  Roan is still whimpering behind me, and I stand to face him, but as I look into Li’s face, his expression compels me to turn around.

  There, lying among silver petals is a grinning, fully naked Ero.

  “I was hoping you’d give me a little more than a peck on the cheek, girl,” he says, laughing.

  “You brute!” I yell, crossing my arms and stomping my foot, only to realize this makes me look like I’m having a tantrum.

  Ero reaches up and pulls me down on top of him. “Finally.”

  I want to hit him, but I’m far too relieved that he’s still alive to care that his behavior is completely inappropriate…and that I’m far too comfortable in his arms.

  The putrescent smell of sulfur fills my nostrils once again, and I turn my head to see Roan lying naked propped up on his elbow beside us. His upper leg crossed over to cover his modesty. Modesty, as if any of them were actually modest.

  “Hello, lass,” Roan says, giving me a wink.

  A girlish shiver runs down my spine. I look toward Li, who hasn’t moved. “Will you join us?”

  Li hesitates, but then steps into the clearing as well. The black fumes that swirl up around him are so thick he disappears entirely, looking more like a giant demon than anything else. Ero holds me tight. As the darkness lifts, Li is left crouching on the ground, breathing hard.

  “I…I don’t know how this is possible,” he gasps. “We should all be dead.”

  “We should have been dead a long time ago,” Ero says.

  Roan lets out a yelp and I glance over to see that he’s tried to remove his collar, but it’s gone tight and is digging painfully into his skin.

  “Let me go,” I command Ero, even though I don’t really want him to stop holding me. He complies immediately and I get up and move to Roan. “Here, let me try.”

  Roan drops his hands and braces himself as I touch the clasps of his collar. Once again, nothing happens. I quickly release the binding and the strap falls to the ground.