The Royal Shifters Complete Series Boxed Set

by Alice Wilde

  “We live to serve, Lord Ero,” a man’s voice calls from across the room.

  “We live to serve!” the room echoes.

  “Very well,” Ero says. “There is much to discuss, but first I need to see to my companions.”

  The people return to their excited whispers as Ero calls one of the servants over and asks him to show us to a fresh room. Once we’ve arrived, Li takes me in his arms and lays me on a bed.

  “Try to rest,” Li says as he presses the back of his hand against my forehead. I hear his receding footsteps as he leaves the room.

  I wish I could rest, but even with my eyes closed, they feel like they’re melting. I can’t even cry to help ease the pain. A giant, heavy paw followed by a large furry head startle me as they’re placed on my arm.

  Before I can say anything, it’s gone and I hear clinking.

  “Here, this should help,” Li says as he carefully spreads a salve over my eyelids. The pain eases almost immediately, and I sigh gratefully as I quickly drift off to sleep.

  My eyes are dry and sting as I force myself to open them, but at least I can open them now. I’m lying in a bed, not unlike the one Ero and I had been in before, but it’s in a different room. I’m lying naked beneath the covers, and I carefully ease myself into a sitting position to look around the room and almost pass out again as I realize there’s a giant leopard lying at the bottom of the bed.

  “Gods,” I say hoarsely, “you nearly scared the life out of me.”

  The leopard raises its head to look at me with emerald eyes. Roan. Guilt rushes over me once again, my stomach knotting.

  “Hello, Roan,” I say softly. “I’ve missed you.”

  The words sound dirty in my mouth, even though I mean them. There’s no one else in the room besides us, and I wonder why Roan is still in his leopard form and where Li and Ero are.

  I cough, my throat painfully dry, and I finally notice a mug filled with water sitting on the table beside the bed.

  Grabbing it, I gulp it down. The cool, sweet water tastes like the nectar of the gods and calms the burning in my throat. Setting it down, I lean back in the bed, wondering what I’m supposed to do now. Or even just what had happened. I wish Roan would shift so that we could at least talk.

  Perhaps he doesn’t want to talk to me. What if Ero already told him what happened? Maybe that is why Roan hasn’t shifted back into his human form. I’d never forgive Ero if he did.

  No, wait. I’m not being rational.

  I take a deep breath in and exhale slowly. There’s no use getting ahead of myself. I don’t know anything for sure. I’ll wait to hate Ero until I know for sure what is going on.

  The water, as refreshing as it was, has left me feeling exhausted again. I close my eyes in the hopes a little more rest will help them soon recover.

  “Annalise?”

  I wake and sit up, startled that I’d actually fallen asleep. There’s a pain in my neck from the awkward way I’d been laying.

  “How are you feeling?”

  The voice is familiar, but my brain is still foggy from sleep and the events of the night before. I look up at the man speaking to me and I’m surprised to see Li.

  “Li,” I say, smiling. “I’m so glad to see you.”

  Li smiles at me. “You nearly suffocated to death, but I think we got to you in time.”

  “What happened?” I ask. “And why is Roan still a leopard but you’re not?”

  “There’s a lot to discuss,” Li says. “Are you sure you’re up to it right now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very well, but first, drink this.”

  Li hands me a mug filled with steaming water, and I sip from it. Grimacing, I try to hand it back to him, but he refuses to take it.

  “Drink,” Li commands. “It’ll help you recover faster.”

  I sigh in defeat and sip slowly at the funny tasting water.

  “Sometime after Roan and I were locked away in the stables, a group of men came in. They mulled around for a while until we recognized another voice—Bjarke. There was something off about the way they were speaking, and even though neither of us could understand exactly what was being said, Ero’s name came up more than a few times. It wasn’t long before Roan and I started to piece together what was happening. From what we could see, the men were heavily armed and very experienced warriors.”

  “You overheard them plotting to kill us?”

  “Yes,” Li says. “We couldn’t understand any details, but it didn’t matter. All we knew was that we had to get to you as quickly as possible.”

  “What took so long?” I ask, hoping I don’t sound angry.

  “You may have noticed that Roan is still in his leopard form,” Li says. “It seems we’d exhausted ourselves to the point where our magic and our ability to shift was limited.”

  “I didn’t even know that was possible.”

  “Neither did we, not until now. Roan still hasn’t been able to shift, but I doubt he’s gotten much rest since the two of you were separated.”

  My cheeks flush red and I look down at my hands. My heart breaks at the thought of Roan worrying over me while I was elsewhere, betraying him.

  “And Ero?” I ask quietly.

  “He’s off deciding what’s to be done with Bjarke now that his plot to assassinate Ero has been brought out in the open.”

  “How did that happen?” I ask in surprise.

  “It’s not very complicated. I finally managed to shift out of my leopard form, perhaps because of my healing magic, and figured out a way to get us out of the cage we’d been placed in. I grabbed a pair of stable hand’s pants and then we raced off to warn you. We barely reached you in time. The hired assassins had just managed to break through the door to your room when we arrived. Thankfully, the smoke was so thick, they had a hard time seeing.”

  “It was Roan who saved me. Did he kill any of them?” I ask, surprised it hadn’t all been a dream.

  “No, just wounded,” Li said. “I have no doubt Roan was angry enough to kill, but he only managed to dig his claws into a few of them before he saw you lying unconscious on the ground and dragged you from the room. The others were easy enough to knock out with Ero’s help.”

  “Oh.”

  “After what happened between Bjarke and Ero in the Great Hall, it wasn’t long before the whole town was calling for justice—and now Ero’s their Viking lord.”

  “I didn’t think any of that was real. I don’t know what to say.”

  “There’s nothing to say,” Li says. “All we can do is wait and let Ero figure out what has to be done here.”

  I sip at the hot drink once again before Li takes it from me and places it on the nightstand and I curl up once again to rest.

  “Please don’t leave,” I whisper.

  “Roan and I will be right here when you wake up,” Li says quietly, placing a hand against my forehead for a moment before sitting down in a chair nearby.

  Twenty-One

  Annalise

  I stretch and yawn, finally feeling rested and mostly recovered. I sit up in bed and look around. Li has dozed off in his chair, and Roan is still sleeping at the end of the bed. Someone must have come in while I was sleeping as there is a new set of clothes folded on the bed beside me.

  As I go to grab the new clothes, I am surprised to find it’s not a dress. I hold the outfit in my hands, wondering if there’s been some mistake or if these are supposed to be for Li. No, the clothes are far too small to fit any of my companions, and the styling is more feminine. But pants? I’ve never worn pants, and now that I think about it, I’ve never even seen a woman wear pants. Besides the shirt and pants, there are various wrappings, buckles, and leathers that I have no idea how to wear.

  The shirt is made of red silk far more luxurious than I’d ever expect to find here. I pull the shirt over my head, and I’m happy to find it’s long enough to cover my modesty, not that I had much modesty left to worry about. Climbing out of bed, I lay out the othe
r pieces of clothing across the bed to try to figure out what each one is for.

  Roan wakes and watches me for a moment before growling loud enough to wake Li.

  “Roan! Sorry, Li.”

  Li sits up straighter in his chair and then cracks his neck before getting up.

  “Roan seems to think you need help getting dressed,” Li says.

  “Um, yes,” I say awkwardly. “I’ve never seen clothes like this for a woman.”

  Li walks over to the side of the bed and examines each garment in turn. He frowns for a while before looking at me.

  “I don’t know what half of this stuff is for either,” he admits.

  The next moment, we both jump as Roan’s leopard shifts into his human form.

  “Ahh!” Roan groans as he stretches like a cat. “Finally!”

  He rolls off of the bed, tugging one of the smaller quilts off with him and wrapping it around himself. Somehow, even a quilt looks fashionable on him. Roan walks over beside me and puts an arm around my shoulder, kissing me on the forehead.

  “Okay, seeing how Li is completely useless in this, I’ll help you,” Roan says before picking up a small piece of fabric and handing it to me.

  I take it from him and unfold it, revealing a short pair of pants.

  “Undergarments,” Roan says, his face reddening.

  Li’s eyes widen and he turns away from us almost immediately.

  “I’ll meet you in the Great Hall,” Li says before quickly heading to the door and exiting the room.

  “You’d think he’d be used to things by now,” I say with a chuckle.

  “He may never have seen a woman’s undergarments quite like that,” says Roan. “I don’t think I ever have.”

  We look at each other for a long moment and then burst into laughter over the tiny white pants. As we catch our breath, Roan pulls me into his arms, our laughter dying away almost immediately.

  “I never want to be separated from you like that again,” Roan whispers, caressing my face with one of his hands.

  I press my cheek into his hand and feel my heart ache in my chest.

  “Roan,” I start to say, but then he kisses me and the world dissolves.

  Roan steps forward, forcing me to step backward until the backs of my legs push up against the edge of the bed and I am obliged to sit down. Roan pulls me gently further up onto the bed as he follows me onto it, our kiss unending. I want this moment to last forever, but as Roan pulls away from me for a moment, looking down at me with his gorgeous green eyes, the tears come.

  Roan immediately senses something is wrong and tenderly wipes away a tear as it runs down my cheek.

  “What is it, lass?”

  I swallow and turn my head to look away, but Roan gently turns me back to face him, making the moment that much harder to handle.

  “There’s something I have to tell you,” I say.

  Roan’s face remains calm, but I can see the muscles in his arms and shoulders tense at my words.

  “I don’t know how to say this.”

  “Did Ero hurt you?” Roan asks, his voice hard and cold.

  “No. I mean, yes, but—”

  Before I can finish my sentence, Roan pushes himself up off the bed and paces around the room.

  “I knew there would be trouble,” Roan growls, “and not just from those men. I knew Ero would hurt you. Damien used him again, didn’t he?”

  “Roan, please, let me try to explain.”

  Roan continues to pace but bites his tongue. I swallow hard, my mouth dry and my stomach twisting painfully.

  “It was my fault,” I say.

  “Don’t say that.”

  “No, this time, it really was my fault,” I say, hoping he can understand some of what I mean by saying that.

  Roan stops pacing and slowly turns to face me. His green eyes meet mine and I almost lose all my resolve to say anything.

  “After the pyre,” I start, dropping my eyes from Roan’s face and down to my hands, “I felt a connection to Ero that I’ve never felt before. After you and Li were taken away, he told me more about his past, and my heart broke for him. I don’t know how to explain it.”

  Roan is standing, almost frozen in place, and I steal myself to continue.

  “He must have felt something for me as well because he kissed me.”

  I hear a deep sigh of relief, and look up at Roan.

  “Is that all, lass?” he asks with a small smile. “I’ll be sure to give Ero a piece of my mind, but that’s nothing for you to feel bad about. I’d never blame you for that. Ero’s a piece of work, and I don’t know how he gets away with it, but even I know he has a way of making women forget themselves.”

  “I didn’t forget myself,” I say quietly.

  The smile on Roan’s face fades slightly, and I take a deep breath to steady my voice before continuing.

  “Roan, I wanted him to kiss me,” I say, a lump rising in my throat. “I begged for him to take me.”

  Every remnant of his smile vanishes as he tries to accept what I’m trying to tell him.

  “Lass,” Roan says stonily. “Wife. Are you telling me…are you telling me you gave yourself to him? That you willingly let him have his way with you?”

  “As much as is possible, under the circumstances,” I admit, my heart dying in my chest as I watch Roan’s composure fall apart in front of my eyes.

  “No,” he says, turning away from me and covering his eyes with one hand. “I don’t believe it. He seduced you. I’ve seen him do it before. You were under his spell, that’s all there is to it.”

  Roan’s voice cracks as he speaks and he stumbles as he reaches out for a nearby chair to steady himself.

  “Roan?”

  “Please, don’t say anything,” Roan says, his voice thick and heavy. “I need to think.”

  My heart feels like it’s shattering into a thousand pieces, and a strange numbness spreads through my body as I sit patiently, waiting for Roan to speak or do something. Anything. The minutes pass, each dragging on into eternity, when Roan suddenly straightens. He doesn’t look at me, but I can still see the rage burning in his eyes.

  “Get dressed,” Roan says, his voice straining to stay calm. “The undergarments, then pants, tuck the shirt, the half-skirt, and belt.”

  I hasten to put everything on as he instructs me. At first, the clothes feel strange, but they’re far from uncomfortable. In fact, quite the opposite. I never realized how restraining skirts really are until now. Pants allow for a surprising amount of mobility that I hadn’t given any thought to before. I’d always imagined the fabric would rub together enough as you walked to cause a similar kind of restraint as skirts do, but that is certainly not the case.

  Roan finishes telling me how to place the remaining leather wraps, and I pull on a pair of soft leather boots. I complete the outfit by tying a leather pouch around my waist and tucking a dagger into it.

  As soon as I’m finished, Roan crosses the room to the door and opens it. He holds the door wide as I hurry across the room to him and leave. Roan follows me out of the bedroom and slams the door shut behind us.

  This isn’t going to be good.

  Twenty-Two

  Ero

  This isn’t how I expected any of this to turn out, but then again, I don’t know what I expected. I survey the room from my new throne—if you can call it that. I’d seen so many different thrones over the years that this wooden chair seems barely worthy of the title.

  “What do you plan to do with Bjarke and the assassins?” someone asks next to me.

  I clear my thoughts and turn toward the voice to find a pretty young woman kneeling beside me, her hands clenched around the arm of the chair.

  “I haven’t decided,” I say, looking at her curiously. “And who are you?”

  “I’m Frida,” the woman says. “One of Bjarke’s daughters.”

  Dammit. The last thing I need on my mind right now is any of their families. I can’t leave any room in my heart fo
r uncertainty when it comes to the decisions I must make.

  “Go away, girl.”

  “Please, my lord,” the young woman says as she lays a hand on my knee and runs it deliberately up my thigh.

  I snatch her hand from my body and twist it toward her, just enough to cause a little pain.

  “Leave, now, before I have you removed.”

  The woman glares at me and then stands and sweeps out of the room, cursing me under her breath. You can never be too careful around anyone. I wonder who sent her, or if she really is one of Bjarke’s daughters.

  I strum my fingers against the wooden arm of the chair and contemplate my next move. Whether or not the people accept me as their new lord, I have no intention of staying. But I have to think of a way to leave without causing more trouble for the village.

  The doors at the far end of the Great Hall swing open and a group of barbaric, fierce-looking men enters the room following a young lad.

  “The men you asked for,” the boy says before bowing and moving off to a corner of the room.

  “Men,” I say in greeting.

  They all look around at each other in some confusion, but nod their heads at me in acknowledgment.

  “I’m sure you’ve heard by now what’s going on,” I say. “Bjarke and his men are awaiting their sentencing.”

  “And you’re suddenly the lord?” one of the men says with a laugh, and several of the other men join in.

  “Yes,” I say nonchalantly, not bothering to defend myself.

  The laughter dies away and they look at me incredulously until one of the men pushes himself to the front of the group.

  “If I may,” he says gruffly, “I’d like to raise a complaint against Bjarke, my lord.”

  I’m caught off-guard by the statement and hesitate for a brief moment before answering.

  “Speak.”

  “Over the past decade, our taxes have been raised to an unsustainable percentage,” the man says. “I can barely feed my family, and I believe many of the others feel the same way.”

  A few of the men shift uncomfortably in place but don’t say anything.