Chapter 2

Present Day

Today is the day that they will finally name me Queen in waiting. I can’t take over the position as Queen fully until I have a mate, but by getting this title, I will take over the day-to-day practices. My mother, Nina and father, Wyatt, are still technically king and queen, but this will be the first step in the transition of power to me. For the last 24 years, my parents have groomed me to be the perfect queen. They raised me to be the strong independent woman type that takes no shit from a man. Since I am built more like my father, it isn’t too hard. I am taller at 5’9” with waist long brown wavy hair from my mother’s side. My body was tall and muscular, but not completely ripped. I still have a womanly shape to me. The biggest thing, my eyes are green like my mother. I inherited her gift of empathy, but nothing else. I have my own abilities. I can manipulate energy. Turn stuff super hot or super cold, bend mental or move the wind, stuff like that. I wish I could electrocute people, but apparently I was given this gift for a reason. 

My wolf, Sierra, was an older soul that was my constant companion and biggest supporter. She is very elusive when answering the harder question, but I couldn’t imagine my life without her. 

I couldn’t shake this feeling that something wasn’t right. My mom said she would get the same feelings, but she never thought of it as a gift, more like intuition. Either way, she was never wrong. 

“SARAH! Are you ready yet?” Molly was Jason’s mate. Jason was my cousin. He was the son of Kelly and Reed. Kelly was my dad’s sister and was a huge part in the royal family. He was what women called ruggedly handsome with his 5-o’clock shadow that I am pretty sure took more time to trim than to actually grow. However, he was tall at 6’9” and solid muscle. Molly was around my height but build more like a model. She had medium length blonde hair and looked like a fucking barbie. Sweetest person you would ever meet. Yesterday, they found out she was pregnant with their first child. 

“Yes!” I said. Coming out of my dressing room/closet, and showed her my dress. It was a gold shimmery dress that hugged every curve that I had. It wasn’t much as most of my body was muscle but I do have a skinner waist. The slit ran up to my upper thigh so it showed off my leg nicely. 

“Wow, you look great! Just like a warrior princess should!” Molly had given me that nickname and it stuck. Most people will call me that now but I guess it does fit me. My hair was braided back into a low bun, showing off my chest nicely in the sweetheart neckline. 

“Thank you, you look amazing as well!” She was wearing a silky royal blue dress that looked more like a night gown. 

“Thanks! I tried not to find anything too tight. I rather not announce my pregnancy till I am a little further along.” Molly took her hand and rubbed her belly up and down. “This little guy is already active!” 

“Be careful! My parents were always told I was a boy till she had me. Even her wolf was wrong!” I joked as I grabbed my jewelry. 

“True but I think that was a fluke, you are weird and stubborn. You managed to trick everyone in her womb!” Molly gave me a weird look. She wasn’t scared or concerned. I could feel her amusment through my own veins. 

“What can I say, I am special like that!” 

A knock on the door sounded into my room. “Girls! You ready yet?” Jason’s voice boomed as he yelled at us. Molly blushed and ran to the door. 

She has always been a little theatrical so when she opened the door, she did a little twirl to show off her dress. Even added a little something I wished I never witnessed. The sexual desire blasted me as Jason scooped her up and kept her twirl going. 

“GUYS!” I yelled. I hated getting their unwanted sexual feelings.

“Haven’t you figured out how to shut us out yet?” Jason laughed as he put her down. His emotions chilled out, which I was thankful for.

“Mostly, but I wasn’t doing it right now. It takes a lot of my energy and damn if I wanted a headache before the night started.” Looking at myself one last time, satisfied with how I looked, we headed out. 

“Everyone is ready and waiting on you. I double checked everything, and we are set.” Jason told me. He was like a brother to me. After my traumatic birth, it left my mother not able to have any more children. So Jason became my brother and my best friend. Jason has one other brother, named Dylan. He is a spinning image of Jason, just five years yonger. Jason is 24 like me but five months older. Dylan has’t found his mate either. 

“That’s good.” Suddenly, I was in all business mode. This wasn’t a party to enjoy but to mingle. I was meeting other Alphas and Lunas as well as government officials that my parents work closely with. Some I have met but I have mostly learned behind the scenes things. I learned what it meant to be a kitchen aid, then cook, and so forth. I worked my way up to the warrior guard training and earned my way on to the squad. I wasn’t given anything but did the same training as all the men. I worked my ass off until I was the leader and for the last year, I have been operating our special forces unit. Nothing was handed to me and because of that, I earned my respect. It was widedly known so I never met most of these people.

“Are you nervous you will finally find your mate?” Molly asked. She knew my parents pushed more for my training then me finding a mate. They wanted me to be able to take over if anything happened and not focused on finding a mate that would come in and have the power to destory everything they worked hard at building. 

“Not really, I…” I smelled it then. The sweet sweet smell of lavender and sawdust. It spoke to me in ways that I never dreamed of. Everything faded in the background as I stopped walking and stared at the corner that was at the end of the hall. The cells in my legs tried to force me forward as they wanted to wrap around our mate. 

“Sarah?” I heard beside me.

“She smells her mate…” Jason said in a tone that I didn’t appreciate. 

The sound of laughter and kissing came around the corner. The sexiest man I ever laid eyes on had his lips pressed against another girls neck. He was around 6’10” of solid muscle and a neck tattoo peaked out from his all black tux. It matched his hair and beard stubble. I watched him breath in and his whole body stiffen as he smelled me. The female was a short petite little thing with the most sluttest dress I’ve ever seen. Her pixie hair with red ends matched the scarlet red dress she was wearing. 

He didn’t say anything but his eyes stared holes into mine. He was feeling tispy, aroused, and intregued. I had no idea who this man was but I already disliked him. Holding my head up high, I tried to walk right passed him. His arm reached out and grabbed my bicept. 

Looking down at his hand and back up at him, “I suggest you remove your hand from my arm.” I said sweetly but threatenly. The sparks that shot up my arm and down my body was proving hard to focus. 

“You don’t want to know who I am?” His voice was like velvet to my ears. 

“Not when you won’t take your hands off whatever cheap thing you found on the side of the road.” 

He found that amusing. “My dear, let me introduce myself. I am Alpha Daxon. Dax for short. I am from the Crestmoon pack. May I ask who you are?” 

I could feel his amusment. I could feel how he wanted to get rid of me. He didn’t want a mate. Jason came up and stood behind me. “I think we better get going?” He suggested before anything else happened.

Black flashed before Alpha Dax’s eyes. “And you are?” He was pissed off Jason intrrupted him. 

“Boys, I am done with this conversation. You can bet your ass I will be back to allow you to reject me but I have a ceremony to get to.” I turned to leave but the dumb bimbo found her voice.

“Your ceremony?” her voice was like nails on a chalkboard.

Stopping in my tracks, I turned and faced her. I felt my eyes glow as I was close to losing it.

“Let me introduce myself. My name is…”

“Sarah?” I heard my dad calling out. Alpha Dax immediatly straight up and let go of the barbie. He put on his business face that made me smirk.

Without taking my eyes off him, I watched his eyes register who I was then. “Yes, dad?” Shock blasted into me hard as he realized his mistake. 

“Wher…. Alpha Dax, Jason, hello everyone. Sarah, everyone is waiting on you, you ready?” My dad looked between us. Jason still looking very pissed off at Alpha Dax. Alpha Dax pushed the girl off him and I just ignored him.

“Yes, I am beyond ready to get in there!” Walking passed my dad, I went straight to the door. Jason was suppose to walk me in. My dad was super confused over what was going on but I saw Jason motion for him to continue on. Alpha Dax angerly walked past me and into the ballroom. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, our very own warrior princess and after today, she will be known as Queen-in-waiting! Princess Sara!” the guy on the microphone yelled as the doors opened and Jason escorted me in. My dad had just made it back to his seat beside my mother. “She is escorted by her cousin and royal Duke Jason.” A warm applause was sounded throughout the ballroom as we walked to the front.

“I’m so sorry.” Jason whispered so low that only I could hear.

“I’m okay.” I said. To be honest, I wasn’t sure but damn if I was going to let a man take tonight away from me. It was then that I realized what my parents tried teaching me grown up. I can’t be mated to anyone. I can’t be mated to a cheater or someone who will destroy the crown. Someone like Alpha Dax. 

Reaching the stage, Jason helped me to the podium. I wasn’t against public speaking but it wasn’t exactly a hobby of mine. Everyone was in their seat as the servers were preparing for the feast. My goal was to keep it short and sweet because I could feel how hungry everyone was. 

“Thank you all for joining us here this evening. I hope all your travels went smoothly. My name is Sarah and I am the daughter of King Wyatt and Queen Nina. Since I my youth was vocused on the inner workings of how to run a kingdom, I hadn’t had the chance to meet everyone. It will be my pleasure to greet everyone tonight and move forward to working with everyone myself. As most of you all know, I am the head of the special ops here at the palace and have already overseen multiple functions. I do ask for patience as I continue to prove to everyone how I will be able to fulfill the roles of my parents. I know I have huge shoes to fill! Please enojoy the feast tonight with a dance following!” 

I clapped my hands and the serves walked out carring trays of food to each guest. We had over a thousand guest here tonight so it would take a few minutes for everyone to get their meal. Soft music started playing as I went back to my seat, on the right side of my father. 

“Want to tell me what was with Alpha Dax?” my dad mind-linked me.