The Royal Shifters Complete Series Boxed Set

by Alice Wilde

  “Gods, I can’t satisfy any of you.”

  “I never said that, lass,” Roan says, winking.

  “Stop flirting. You have a job to do,” Li mumbles.

  Ero curls up on the bed, leaving a space wide enough for me to fit between him and Li. Roan leans against a tree, the moonlight casting soft shadows on his skin. From my seated position, he looks like a tree himself. Broad and sturdy, but with natural grace. I continue to massage each of Li’s feet, but finally stop when my hands begin to grow stiff with pain. I’d watched Roan the whole time, and he was gracious enough to pretend he didn’t notice. I could have been watching him for hours for all I know. Li and Ero are asleep. I carefully remove Li’s feet from my lap and shift onto my knees to stretch.

  I groan quietly from the pain in my fingers, then I find them cupped in Roan’s own hands. My heart skips as his lips press tenderly to my fingertips and his green eyes look up at me through thick lashes.

  “My hands are dirty,” I say nervously.

  Roan gives me a side grin. “You’re funny, lass. As if a bit of dirt, even Li’s, would keep me from wanting to kiss you.”

  I’m pretty sure my heart has stopped beating.

  Roan’s eyes look deep into my own, searching, questioning. He drops my hands as he places his own on either side of my face, his fingers gently entwining themselves in the hair at the nape of my neck.

  “My hair is—”

  Roan’s thighs drop to either side of mine as he pulls me toward him. He stops before our mouths meet, breathing heavily, and I bridge the final gap, our lips locking in intense passion. Wave after wave of ecstasy washes over me, chills spilling down my spine and heat rising between my legs. My hands glide up his thighs…searching, wanting. Our mouths moving together in perfect rhythm.

  This.

  This is what I had always imagined kissing to be like.

  The fire between my legs is throbbing and I’m sure the whole world can hear my heart pounding in my chest. I need him. My body needs him.

  I suddenly find myself moaning in anguish as Roan pulls his lips from my own. His hands find and stop my own before I’ve reached his laces.

  “No, lass. We mustn’t go there. I’ve already done too much.”

  “Please,” I beg.

  “No. It can’t be helped. I’d never forgive myself. Ero would kill me…and you’d never forgive yourself either.”

  “Yes, I would. I’m sure I’d find a way.”

  Roan chuckles softly. “You say that now, but you’d regret it come morning.”

  I roll my eyes at him.

  “Come, now. I didn’t say I didn’t want you, lass.” Roan says, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly. “Besides, I doubt you could handle me anyway. Can’t have you getting obsessed me with just yet.”

  I want to hit him, but he’s still holding my hands in place.

  “You, beast,” I hiss, but it just makes me want him even more.

  Standing, Roan pulls me to my feet. Tucking a finger under my chin, he kisses me again, softly.

  “Get some sleep, lass.”

  He returns to his post and I move to lie down between Ero and Li, my heart still racing. I’m not sure how I’ll ever fall asleep now, but I slip into a dreamless slumber almost instantly.

  Four

  Li

  I’ve brought this on myself. I spent the last few weeks keeping my distance from Annalise and nearly allowing her life to fall to ruin. It makes sense why she wouldn’t trust my judgment now. But I need her to. I need them all to.

  Annalise still has a great deal to learn about the world outside the castle walls. We should have been more cautious in the woods earlier today. If Louis and his men had been bandits—or worse, Damien’s men—all would have been lost to the greed of our bellies and the looseness of our tongues. I will have to remind Annalise that even our words can mean the difference between survival and certain death.

  I’m certain Roan, Ero, and I could have taken care of Louis and his men back in the forest had it been necessary, but I’m glad it didn’t come to that. Still, I can’t shake the uneasy feeling I’ve had since we entered the camp.

  I look up just as Annalise steps out from behind the hanging sheets. If I ever thought she looked like an angel before, it pales in comparison to how she looks now. Lena’s dress compliments Annalise’s skin and hair beautifully. Our shared kiss floods my mind, blinding me in the moment. I grab a plate and focus on piling as much food as I can manage onto it. I must find a way to manage my feelings for her. If I let her get too close to me, I run the risk of playing into Damien’s hand. If I don’t, I run the risk of losing Annalise.

  Turning away from the fire, I walk quickly to the edge of the clearing. At least I can do something useful in the meantime.

  No sooner do I reach the edge of the forest wall than Ero shows himself. At first, I thought him a fool to change into his beast form, leaving him playing the part until we cleared ourselves from Louis’s troupe. But now, I’m thankful for the upper-hand it gives us.

  “Ero,” I say, linking with him, “I’m going to have to ask a favor of you.”

  “At least let me eat first.”

  I throw a large portion of the meat toward him without thinking the action through thoroughly. Ero growls at me, but devours it all the same.

  “Perhaps next time you could give it to me on a plate?”

  “You’re supposed to be a beast, remember?”

  “Just admit you were being an ass.”

  I clench my teeth, but decide not to reply to that. “Ero. I need you to scout the area as far out as you can in all directions before nightfall. Something doesn’t feel right.”

  “Nothing’s felt right since as far back as I can remember. Besides, I’ve already checked and found nothing.”

  “You know what I mean. I need you to double check everything.”

  Ero rolls his eyes, but I know he understands the danger we’re in. He may be the youngest, but he had to mature at a far younger age than Roan and I.

  “Be thorough, but quick.”

  “Yes, general,” Ero says mockingly before breaking the link and disappearing into the brush.

  Ero might be a prick, but at least he knows how to follow orders when needed…most of the time.

  Returning the campfire, I pause to watch as Roan and Annalise dance, a lump rising in my throat. I swallow the feeling as quickly as it came.

  There’s no time for jealousy. There are more pressing matters to concentrate on now. Still, I can’t help but feel a twinge of hurt as I see the way she looks at him. Perhaps I’ve already lost her…to Roan.

  I continue to watch them, my heart torn by duty and my desire to toss Roan into the fire and take his place. The music finally stops, but Roan and Annalise continue to dance a moment longer before taking a seat close to Lena. I sit too and feign interest in the story, but I am far too bothered by our current situation and my own feelings.

  I hardly hear a word Lena says. I know I shouldn’t be listening in on the conversation Annalise is currently having, but I can’t help myself. Louis’s story makes sense, and it helps to put me slightly more at ease with the camp, but it’s Annalise’s words that bother me.

  It’s hard for me to tell if she’s completely dismissed us as lovers or if she wishes we were. Or perhaps she only wants one of us. This shouldn’t be bothering me. Of the three of us, I know better than to expect or want anything more than to protect her.

  Lena’s voice fades as the fairytale comes to an end and Louis gets up. I move to take his place beside Annalise.

  “I’m not sure we should stay the night,” I say.

  Almost immediately, I can tell this isn’t going to go over well with Annalise. I know she’s tired, we’re all tired, but I wish she’d trust me more. And I doubt Roan is going to say anything to back me up. At least she agrees to sleep on the outskirts of the camp. We’ll have an easier time protecting ourselves or escaping quickly if need be.

 
It’s only after we’ve laid out the bedding that I realize how fatigued I’ve become over the past weeks. As badly as I crave sleep, I refuse Roan’s offer to take first watch…at first. I do want to stay awake and protect Annalise, but they’re right. If I don’t rest, I won’t be good for much of anything, let alone protecting anyone from harm.

  I lie down and close my eyes. I can already feel sleep creeping up on me when I’m startled by the feeling of small hands grasping my sore feet. I open my eyes to see that Annalise has taken one of my feet in her lap and started to massage it, although it’s more ticklish than relaxing.

  “Then you might as well put a bit more power into it.”

  I’m sure my words come off coarser than I intend, but I’m too tired to be less than blunt. Annalise makes a snarky remark but presses hard into my feet nonetheless. It’s almost painful. Almost. She doesn’t know how much this simple gesture and the pressure points in my feet are arousing me. Perhaps it’s a good thing I’m so worn out.

  I smile to myself and let sleep overtake me.

  Five

  Ero

  I want to run and never look back. So much of me had hoped that Louis and his men were Damien’s or bandits that when they turned out to be otherwise, I was more than a little disappointed. I wanted so badly to tear something apart that even dinner can’t satiate me.

  Li is worried. He knows Damien far better than any of us, and I know better than to disregard caution when it comes to him. That doesn’t mean I’ll just kneel and obey, but I’ll play my part. Besides, I’d almost hoped he’d ask.

  Now, here I am scouring the woods once again for any sign of him or his men. Hell, I’ll even take a down a party of bandits if I come across them. Anything to release some of the tension that’s been building in me since we escaped Damien’s clutches.

  I can’t quite figure out what’s going on between the four of us. I know Li has feelings for Annalise. He made that pretty obvious from the start. But Roan? I hadn’t expected him to start fawning over the girl quite as much as he has been. Damn, even I feel something for her.

  I thought our feelings for her would ease once we got far enough away from Damien, or at the very least our bond would lessen. So far, that hasn’t been the case.

  All I want to do is protect her, keep the other two from touching her, and tear Damien’s throat out. Alright, that’s not entirely true. Food and sex are high priorities as well, even if I can’t act on the latter at present. I’ve never had any trouble before, but ever since we met Annalise, I can’t get anything up without thinking about her. Damn curse.

  I circle the camp once again, combing through the surrounding land, slowly widening my path, but I don’t find anything out of the ordinary. Frustrated in more ways than one, I head back to meet the others.

  The troupe is preparing for the night when I finally arrive. Li has managed to get Annalise to agree to sleep toward the edge of the clearing.

  I move through the forest to join them, not wanting to startle the troupe by cutting through the middle of camp. Annalise begins to massage Li’s feet and I curl up on the blanket to rest, a twinge of jealousy forming in my gut. I don’t know why, perhaps it’s a primal reaction from my beast form, but I wish she were massaging me, playing with my fur and rubbing my body.

  My ears twitch and I focus in on the sound of Roan moving closer and open an eye to see what’s happening.

  “You bastard,” I say, linking with Roan as he pulls away from his kiss with Annalise.

  I was surprised to find I couldn’t link until after the kiss had finished. It was like running headfirst into a stone wall.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Exactly what it looks like.”

  “Stop before you get us all in trouble.”

  Roan breaks the link, but he seems to sense the danger he’s put us in. Annalise’s pheromones are running rampant, triggering my own body to prepare for mating. I center myself in my beast heart, but even so, I’m finding it nearly impossible not to shift and take Annalise then and there myself.

  “—Ero would kill me. And you’d never forgive yourself either,” Roan says.

  Damn, he’s good. Roan finally removes himself from her and steps away, but even so, as Annalise lies down next to us, it takes all my strength to keep from touching her. It isn’t until she finally falls asleep that I am able to rest as well.

  Six

  Roan

  I lean back against the tree, the calm coolness of the night washing over me. Looking down at Annalise, I smile. I may not have fallen for her the second I saw her, but she’s grown on me. Not that I didn’t want her before, as any man wants a woman, but she’s not quite like any lass I’ve known before. She has the same strong will of the lassies back home, but it’s different somehow. I’m overthinking this. I just like the lass. I’ll figure out all the reasons why later.

  I watch her sleep for a moment before I feel a familiar tear in my soul. I snap my eyes shut just as I feel inky tendrils flow through my body. My eyes roll back inside my head as Damien takes control of them. I can feel his presence in my head, as if his eyes have replaced my own and I am fighting for control of my own mind.

  His black eyes bore into the backs of my lids and I struggle to keep my eyelids shut. A twig snaps in the distance and my ears ring with the echo.

  “There you are,” Damien says before breaking our link.

  I double over in exhaustion. He’s more than close.

  Damien is here.

  Seven

  Annalise

  My eyes snap open, a cold sweat dripping down my brow as I stare up at the dark, starry night sky. I can see, but I can’t move. I hear Roan gasping for air, but I can’t turn my head to look. There’s a heaviness around us, not unlike the darkness that had tried to take my mind.

  “Li,” Roan growls. “Wake up!”

  I can feel Li shift beside me, but he groans in his sleep.

  The heaviness suddenly lifts from me and I breathe deeply, only to find my breath pushed from my lungs the next moment as a giant paw steps on my chest.

  Ero…but it’s not Ero.

  I watch in horror as inky black tendrils take over the last remnants of his sapphire eyes. He bares his teeth at me and for the first time, I’m truly frightened of one of my leopards. Dull, soulless eyes bore into mine as he shifts more of his weight onto my chest. My lungs burn from the lack of oxygen. I’m sure my ribcage is about to collapse. I want to yell, but then I hear a scream rise from the far side of the camp.

  “Li!” Roan roars.

  Li springs up beside me just as Roan launches himself into Ero, sending him flying. Li is already on his feet and has scooped me into his arms, blanket and all. I just manage to catch a glimpse of Ero tearing at Roan’s flesh as Li shoves through the undergrowth and we charge off into the night.

  It takes me several minutes to get enough air back into my lungs to speak.

  “Stop! Li, stop!”

  Li doesn’t stop.

  “We can’t leave them. They’ll kill each other!”

  “I know.”

  “So, turn around!”

  “I can’t.”

  “Turn around right this instant,” I say, wiggling in his arms to try and force him to drop me.

  Li slows to a stop, but doesn’t release his hold on me.

  “Let me down. Now!”

  “Hush,” Li growls at me, and something in his tone makes me swallow my tongue.

  All I can hear are the quiet sounds of the woods. A breeze rustles through the tops of the trees. Somewhere in the far distance an owl hoots. And then, nothing.

  “Li,” I venture.

  Li sighs and then looks down at me, his expression full of concern. I turn my face away.

  “Annalise, I know you mean well, but sometimes you just need to trust me.”

  “How can I trust someone who leaves his friends and a whole family to fend for themselves?”

  “You still don’t get it,
do you?”

  “What is there to get?” I exclaim.

  “There’s so much more at stake here than our lives, or the lives of the troupe. Yes, there’s always the chance that Damien may kill them, but as long as he doesn’t get you, it will mean nothing.”

  “How can you say that?” I ask, my heart tight in my chest. “How can you say their lives don’t matter?” I don’t know how I could have ever wanted this man.

  “You’re misunderstanding me.”

  “So, explain,” I say, my eyes flashing as they flicker back to his face.

  Li watches me, his eyes searching mine. “Annalise,” Li begins, “I am not so hard-hearted as you think me. Sometimes, as leaders, we have to make choices for the greater good.”

  “The greater good,” I scoff.

  “Yes. As painful as it may be, the lives that may be lost tonight will pale in comparison to those lost if Damien takes you.”

  “I’ll never accept that.”

  “Then here we must differ,” Li says softly. “I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry won’t change what’s happening.”

  “I know.”

  “Then go back! We have to help them.”

  Li lifts his face to stare out into the darkness. “Whatever Damien did, it would be too late to stop it now.”

  “I’ll never forgive you if you don’t take me back.”

  Li’s jaw tightens. “I’ll have to live with that then. I can’t let anything happen to you, even if you hate me for it.”

  My eyes burn from the tears welling up in them. I’m lost for words and my pride is hurt. Li is giving me no say in the matter and I can’t help but feel undermined. How will I ever be a queen if everyone else is forcing my decisions? No. This is unacceptable. Li may have my best interest in mind, and he may have good reasons, but I have just as much of a right to decide what happens as he does.