The Royal Shifters Complete Series Boxed Set

by Alice Wilde

  “Circle again, and dive low close to the trees,” I shout, and the dragon does as I say. We’re approaching the castle once again when something suddenly jumps out of the trees and onto Avalon’s back, a few lengths away from Li.

  “What the hell is that?” Roan yells.

  Whatever it is, it’s not human…

  “I think it’s one of the shadow men Ero told us about,” Li starts, glancing over his shoulder and then he blinks and points behind us, “there’s one behind you Roan!”

  Roan barely has enough time to dodge a blade as it zings by the side of his neck, but his sudden movement throws me off balance and I topple off the dragon’s back and into the trees below.

  I close my eyes, willing myself to shift when a pair of long thin branches wrap around me, breaking my fall. I scream as I open my eyes to find myself looking up into a long, strange, smiling face. The tree-like creature wraps its arms tighter around me as I struggle to break free and begins bounding off toward the castle screeching.

  “I got her! I got her!”

  A number of similarly terrifying creatures slip out of the forest along the way to race along with us. They’re all just as Avalon had described, like the dark, disturbing shadow versions of their daylight counterparts…and there are so many more than I ever imagined.

  I was a fool to ever think we could take back the castle with nothing but ourselves and a dragon. A burst of blinding light startles the creature carrying me and it stumbles, dropping me to the ground as loud shrieks rise up from the others.

  “Rise,” a calm, clear voice says and I look up into Kai’s face. His hand is extended toward me, and I take it gratefully. “Hurry, the darkness is rising, we won’t be able to hold them off for long.”

  “We?” I ask turning to find dozens of blade-wielding Fae appearing all around, their light driving the dark creatures back.

  “Go,” Kai urges, his voice as calm as ever but the word sounding nevertheless like a command.

  I tear my eyes away from the battle and race onward toward the castle gates.

  Toward Damien.

  Toward… the end.

  Twenty-five

  Roan

  “We need to get on the ground!” I shout to Li as soon as I manage to toss my attacker over the side of the dragon.

  “Not yet!”

  “What do you mean, not yet? Annalise is down there, she’s heading into the castle alone!”

  “Avalon won’t land or fly that low again, not without her direct command.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I growl, my heart racing as I watch the lass enter through the castle gates, her red dress standing out among the big splotches of warring dark and light.

  “We’ll circle the castle and take out as many of our enemies as possible,” Li says. “As soon as there’s an opening we can land.”

  “Fine.”

  We dive down toward the battlefield, and Avalon reigns fire down on as many of the shadowy beings as he can. I feel a sense of pride seeing the Fae fighting alongside us, but it’s fleeting as more and more dark creatures pour out of the forest. We’re outnumbered beyond anything I’d ever imagined.

  We’re still quite high above the ground when I catch sight of Annalise once again, and I nearly fall from Avalon’s back as soon as I see the man who steps out of the castle to greet her.

  “Li, we have a problem.”

  “We have a lot of problems,” Li snaps back.

  “Annalise. Damien’s found her.”

  “What?!”

  We both lean over the dragon’s side and watch in horror as she stands up taller, hands on her hips. I only wish I was there to hear what she’s saying to him…as well as protect her from him. Damien doesn’t give her much time to say anything, and I dig my fingers into Avalon’s back to force myself not to jump.

  Li and I watch helplessly as Damien closes the space between them, towering over Annalise as he reaches down and picks her up by her throat. She struggles against his hold until she goes limp and he lowers her back down to the ground before picking her up in his arms and stepping inside, the castle doors slam shut behind him.

  “Get me down there, right now,” I shout, “or so help me god I will blame you both for her death.”

  Avalon seems to understand the situation and dives low enough that I’m able to leap down onto the ramparts before he rises back up into the sky with Li. The archers have all burned to death, but the courtyard is gradually filling with dark odd, shady creatures as the Fae are pushed further and further back. I jump down from the top of the wall and shift mid-air, roaring as I tear into groups of the wicked, wild things.

  My rage and animal instinct become one and I’m only shaken from my rampage when I hear a nauseating scream from somewhere up above.

  It’s Annalise.

  I look around, trying to figure out where the sound came from when I realize that after taking down as many of the vile creatures as I have, the number of beings only seems to be increasing. I throw off a pair of attacking shadows and search the area for some opening into the castle when a wall of fire suddenly lights up the center of the courtyard as Avalon swoops low.

  Li jumps down into the madness with me, but doesn’t shift and he’s immediately swarmed by the creatures until he’s pulled down into them. I fight my way through the onslaught toward him, but the going is slow and I’m not sure I’ll be able to save him when the monsters surrounding him are suddenly thrown off in every direction, and Li pulls himself up, surrounded by a guard of terracotta warriors. They’re having far less trouble keeping the beasts off him than either of us is, and it gives me an idea.

  “Li,” I say, linking with him, “hurry! Go find Annalise. I heard her scream and I can’t make my way into the castle from here.”

  “Going!”

  I watch as the guard help push him through the creatures toward the castle door, and I pray he makes it to her in time.

  It isn’t long before I hear another blood-curdling scream and my heart breaks inside me. I have to get to her before it’s too late, but I’m barely keeping myself alive. How the hell am I supposed to get to her?

  An icy chill runs through me and I watch as a thick fog rolls over the sides of the wall and down into the courtyard. I start to say my own prayers as death creeps ever closer when the dark creatures all around me are suddenly lifted into the air by… sailors? And then I see…

  Rán.

  “Run,” she commands gliding through the teeming courtyard toward me as her men clear a path to the door. “Fly to her you fool!”

  Twenty-six

  Annalise

  I don’t know what I expected to see when I came to, but it certainly isn’t this.

  Damien is standing over me, but I’m lying in my old bedroom and in own bed.

  “Welcome back,” Damien sneers, rolling up his sleeves. “Although, I must say, I had hoped you’d come back with a little more of a challenge for me.”

  I glare at him which only seems to make him happier. “What have you done to my people?”

  “Your people?” He laughs. “They were weak, it didn’t take long for them to try to crawl away. Pathetic humans.”

  “You’re human, too.”

  “No,” Damien barks, spinning away from me and walking over to my old vanity to look at himself, “don’t you dare say that. I’m so much more than that.”

  I can hear the battle growing more intense outside, and all I want to do is run to the window to see who’s winning. “You’ll never get away with this.”

  “Such a tired line,” Damien says in a flat voice. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve had that said to me? And guess how many times I’ve gotten away with doing it. Every. Single. Time. I’ve been doing things like this for centuries, and I’m not about to let that change now.”

  My eyes dart around the room in search of something, anything I might be able to use against him…and then I see it. There, on my vanity, sitting in front of Damien is my mother�
�s blade. Now, I just have to find some way to get it. I slowly slide off my bed as Damien continues to look at himself in the mirror.

  “I don’t understand why you want to do this,” I say, trying to think of ways to keep him distracted.

  “Of course,” Damien says, sounding bored, “why would a simple girl understand the complexities of something like this? Oh, I nearly forgot, I have a homecoming gift for you.”

  This stuns me. “A gift?”

  Damien clears his throat a dark smile spreading across his face before he crosses to the door and throws it open. I take my chance and race over to the vanity. Just as my hand closes over the dagger, Damien drags Rosa into the room by her jeweled collar.

  “Rosa!”

  She opens her eyes at the sound of her name her face tired and pained, but a spark of life flits through it at the sight of me. “Annalise, you came back… You shouldn’t have come back.”

  Damien suddenly tosses her to the floor as he strides toward me. “What are you doing with that?”

  I remember the blade in my hand and only have a split second to act. I thrust the dagger up into Damien’s stomach as hard as I can. He looks at me in stunned silence and then slowly pulls the blade from his body, his grin growing wider.

  “Silly girl,” he laughs, blood seeping from his open wound, “you can’t kill me. No one can kill me.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because of this,” he says and shifts into a giant bear in front of me, he swats me to the ground and I cry out in pain. His mind connects with mine. “No human can kill me, and thanks to your little trick—”

  He coughs, blood splattering the floor around me. Damien looks down in surprise and then bewilderment as he shifts back to his human form and falls to his knees, clutching at the wound. “How?”

  “Perhaps it’s because I, too, am a shifter.”

  Damien coughs up more blood, his eyes widening as I suddenly shift into a phoenix in front of him. “Impossible.”

  He collapses onto the floor and I suddenly shift back as well, screaming out in pain and clutching at my stomach. Water and blood pool and mix on the floor as I crumple down onto it.

  This is how I die.

  “Hush, princess,” a voice says above me. “It’ll all be over soon. You’ve been through far worse.”

  “Ero?” I ask in disbelief, opening my eyes to find him looking down at me and instantly calming even as the agonizing pain returns. He’s placed my head in his lap and is running his fingers through my hair as he smiles down at me, his blue eyes glistening.

  “Yes, princess?”

  “How are you here?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I held your body,” I say before groaning and feeling a powerful urge to push, “you were dead.”

  “Yes, this is true.”

  “But how did she manage to kill you?”

  “Annalise, I gave up my ability to shift back when we hunted the Nian.”

  “You what?!”

  “It was the only way to get them to return with me, and you needed that dragon.”

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I cry.

  “I know I didn’t have to, but I wanted to... for you. Now, you need to focus. You’re giving birth.”

  “What are you talking about—”

  Again, I feel the urge to push and Ero holds me as I do.

  “They’ll be here soon.”

  “Who will?”

  “You need to push, Annalise. Are you ready?”

  “No! Ero, tell me what’s going on.”

  “One, two, push,” Ero directs, ignoring my question and as much as I want him to answer me I push. Something slides out of me onto the floor. “Again.”

  “What—”

  Intense pressure forces something else out of my body and then I lie back in Ero’s lap, completely exhausted.

  “See,” Ero says smiling down at me, “I always knew you were a strong one.”

  “Ero, why are both your eyes blue again,” I question, reaching up to touch his face, “and how are you here?”

  “I’ll always be here for you, princess. Always until the day you join me to walk the halls of Valhalla. We made a surprisingly beautiful son together. You better make sure Roan and Li take good care of him.”

  I can hardly grasp what he’s saying, my mind dizzy and my vision growing blurry. “Ero—”

  “I love you, too,” he whispers, leaning down to kiss me, “now, I have to go get help.”

  “Don’t go,” I beg.

  “I must, or you’ll be joining me far sooner than you’re meant to.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “What about Li and Roan?”

  Instantly, even as foggy as my mind is growing, I know he’s right. It would be just as devastating to leave them behind as it is to be left behind by Ero.

  “That’s what I thought,” Ero says softly, “let me—”

  My vision goes dark as I finally lose consciousness in the ever-growing pool of blood.

  Twenty-seven

  Annalise

  “Where is she?” Roan demands, throwing open the door and stumbling into the room, pushing Li aside in the process.

  “On the bed.”

  “Is…she dead?”

  “She lost a lot of blood, but we found her in time. She’ll be fine after she takes the time to rest and heal.”

  “Oh, thank heavens,” Roan sighs in relief before nervously making his way over to the bed. He lets out a soft gasp as he leans over me and then stares in silence for a long while, and I can’t blame him for doing so.

  “Little Bird,” Li says in a soft voice, “call for me if you need anything. I’m going to find something for you to eat.”

  “Thank you,” I murmur, the room once again quiet as he leaves us alone.

  Roan clears his throat as quietly as he can manage.

  “Lass, do you mind if I ask a favor of you?”

  “What is it?”

  “I was hoping,” Roan says with a nervous strain in his voice. “Well, I was hoping maybe, one day, might we have a wee bairn of our own?”

  I pull my eyes away from the sweet, tiny, sleeping faces lying next to me and to look over my shoulder at him, a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. “I would like that.”

  “Would you, wife?”

  “Very much in deed.”

  Roan kisses the top of my shoulder as I turn back to continue admiring the two tiny babies.

  “My sweet little Ero,” I whisper, smiling softly and tenderly pinching the chubby, milk-white cheek of one of the babies between my fingers. “I think your father would like to know that you had your own Roan to tease.”

  Roan squeezes my shoulder comfortingly at this, and I feel a pang of heartache as I think of Ero, but even as it shoots through me, my heart feels full.

  For every brokenhearted moment in my life, every love lost, every moment I thought I’d never be able to love again… I finally have more love in my heart than I ever imagined, and I aim to keep it that way.

  The End

  Epilogue

  Roan and Li stood on either side of me as we watch the flaming ship holding your body, along with a few precious reminders of our journey together, float off to sea.

  As I’m sure you can guess, Avalon kept his promise, and we managed to return your body to your homeland not long after I gave birth to Mei, a sweet little girl who looks an awful lot like Li and, your son, little Ero. Thank the gods for shifter healing, Roan’s natural father instincts, and Li’s gentle caring or I don’t know where I’d be today. And of course, your guidance bringing the little ones into this world.

  Damien’s death broke the link he created with the Shadowland and freed our kingdom and, although they still don’t know it, the world from his tyrannical reign of darkness. There’s still a great deal for me to fix, and it won’t happen overnight…but the world is changing, and thanks to you, Li, and Roan, I can finally say for the better.

  I look forwar
d to the day we walk the halls of Valhalla, together once again… and yes, I expect you three to get along for the rest of eternity.

  Love,

  Your Princess

  Thank You!

  Thank you for reading Her Prophecy! If you enjoyed this series, feel free to check out my other books or follow me via Facebook or Amazon so you never miss a new release!

  http://alicewilde.com/

  Also by Alice Wilde

  Hellfire Academy

  Fallen

  Broken

  Chosen

  Taken (Dec 2019)

  Coming Early 2020

  The Royal Shifters

  Her Betrothal

  Her Highlander

  Her Viking

  Her Warrior

  Her Prophecy

  The Shifters of Africa

  The Lioness of Egypt

  The Pride of Egypt

  The Queen of Egypt

  The Gargoyles of the Rose

  The Rose of Stone (prequel)

  Full Series Coming Early 2020

  Short Reads

  My Cup of Tea

  About the Author

  Alice Wilde grew up with a love of reading and spent her teens writing and submitting her essays as fantasy stories, much to the annoyance, but often high marks, of her teachers. Now, she spends much of her days writing fantasy romances (filled with gorgeous men and, of course, magic) that she hopes will spark a flame in readers as much as they do in herself.

  Alice is currently living with her cat in a small town she doesn’t see much of, as she's too busy dreaming up, writing down, and living in her next paranormal RH romance, though she generally finds enough time for a real-life date or two... We all need a bit of inspiration now and again, right?