“We can just go somewhere else then,” Sophia pleaded one last time. “I have a feeling that if you go back, you won’t come back.” ““The shifter kingdom is our best bet. They do not like Keres, and maybe I can learn about my father there. There might even be family that will take us in for a while at least. I promise I’ll be back,” Gianna said as she pulled Sophia in for a quick hug. “Stay here,” she said as she slipped off her backpack and put it between a bush and a tree. With one last quick smile, Gianna hurried off, carefully making her way back to the cave that the guard had brought them through maybe fifteen minutes ago. “Please don’t go,” Sophia whispered as she watched Gianna quickly making her way along the rocks. Sophia watched her sister till she disappeared in the cave. Once Gianna was out of sight Sophia slid her backpack off and put it on the ground with Gianna’s. She pulled the rain jacket that Gianna had packed her out, and slipped it on to help block the wind. It wa
Okay. You can do this, Gianna told herself as she let her wolf come forward to help sharpen her senses. She hurried back the way that they had just come, following the rapidly fading scents. With her sharpened scenes Gianna was able to move quicker, and soon found herself back at the door the guard had led them through earlier. Holding her breath, Gianna listened to see if she heard any sounds on the other side of the hidden door. Not hearing anything, she carefully opened the door just a crack to make sure there was nothing to hear over the pounding of her own heart. Once she confirmed that the coast was indeed clear, Gianna pushed back her wolf and stepped quietly into the hallway. Making sure that the door was covered, she quickly made her way back to their rooms. Peaking around the last corner, Gianna was relieved to see that no one was in the hallway. Good, she thought to herself, they have not had a shift change yet. Gianna quickly sprinted to the door and closed it softly b
Gianna sighed as she sat through another meeting that her cousin Keres, excuse me, King Keres was holding. Ever since Keres took his father, King Victor’s, place last month after his very unexpected death, Keres had been forcing her to come to these meetings where he was basically trying to undo everything that her parents and uncle had worked so hard to put in place. After being at war on and off with different kingdoms for the past one hundred plus years, they were finally at peace and most everyone in the kingdom was content. Gianna’s step father and her mother, the former king and queen, had worked very hard brokering peace treaties with many of the other kingdoms. After the accident that took their lives a little over two years ago, her step father’s brother, Victor, had continued on in their place with trying to garner additional peace treaties. Listening to Keres and hearing his greed underlined in everything that he is doing, Giannna knew that it was only a matter of time bef
After another two hours of listening to Keres talk about himself and how great his plans are, the meeting was finally over. Everyone knew to remain seated until Keres had left. Once he was gone, everyone relaxed a little and they slowly began to rise and make their way out of the conference room. Gianna quickly got up with the others and offered a polite smile and nod as a form of goodby at the three advisors that glanced her way. She no longer tried to speak to anyone in the room once Keres was gone. The others had made it very obvious that none of them could or would talk to her. She had made that mistake just once a few weeks ago. Gianna had tried to carefully speak to a few advisors, council members, and generals that had once been very close to her parents. She had wanted to see why they were suddenly supporting all of the crazy proposals that Keres was issuing. The nice ones were the ones that blatantly told Gianna that they would not talk to her or completely avoided her att
Keres turned and slammed the door to his royal office after dismissing his guards. How dare Gianna not pay attention while he was presenting ideas to expand their future again. She never wants to pay him or his ideas any real attention. Why? Does she really think that little brat of a sister of hers can rule any better? Scoffing, Keres stalked over to the large fireplace that was centered on the wall to the right of his desk. Reaching the fireplace, he grabbed a decorative vase from the mantle that upon closer inspection he realized was rather crude. Turning the vase over to see who the maker was of something so pitiful, he saw Gianna engraved on the bottom.Seeing her name reminded him again of her questioning his ideas today in front of his advisors and generals, and his fist clenched around the vase. She was bolder today. Normally she keeps her thoughts to herself. Normally just the contempt shows on her face. With a frustrated yell Keres flung the vase into the fireplace shatteri
Nolan sighed as he checked the time on his phone, which he hoped was discreetly, for the fifteenth time. As the future alpha king surely, there were more important matters that he could be attending to. The she wolf in front of him was certainly attractive, but that was all he could say for her. What was her name again? April? Alice? Allison? Alyssa? Yes, that’s her name. Alyssa. She is the only child of Alpha Scott of the Harvest Moon Pack. Sighing, Nolan tried to contain his boredom as he listened to Alyssa drone on about herself, shopping, and the latest gossip from her pack. This date was slowly killing him. Nolan also had an issue with the way that she had spoken to the waitress several times that was serving them. He did not believe in talking down on or treating anyone as if they were not worthy of kindness or respect due to their position or job. Every job and position had a purpose within the kingdom to help keep everything working smoothly. Nolan had quickly seen that the s
Alyssa sat at the table that she had just been sharing with the future alpha king and watched him hurry out to his supposed meeting. She was not clueless like he thought. She had known that he had zoned out for half of their date together, and she was also well aware that he did not have a meeting scheduled for another few hours. How dare he treat her like this she fumed. All she had ever wanted was to be Nolan’s mate. She had made sure that her father had taken her on trips to the castle after she first saw Nolan. For the last ten years, she had faked interest in the workings of her pack and kingdom matters so that she could attend meetings at the castle and here as her father’s heir. Each time she had made sure that she presented herself well and to make sure that nolan and his parents saw her. Alyssa knew that his parents were supportive of a match between herself and Nolan. The queen herself was the one that approached Alyssa just two months ago after one of the many boring alph
Opening the door to their rooms, Gianna sighed as she was greeted by the sight of Sophia tracing patterns from one of the books that she had found for her. She had said that there were some things that she had found that she wanted to try the next time that they go out. As soon as she heard the door open, Sophia stopped what she was doing and hopped up to hug Gianna. “You were gone forever,” she said, wrapping her small arms around Gianna’s legs. “What took so long?”“Keres was telling us about another plan of his,” Gianna said, wrinkling her nose. “What are you drawing over there,” she asked, nodding toward the book and paper that Sophia had just abandoned. “I am practicing for when we go to the woods again. Can we go tonight,” Sophia asked hopefully.“Umm..I’m not sure it will safe tonight to try sneaking out. Let’s try tomorrow night. I think I made Keres very mad today, so he might try having us watched or something,” Gianna admitted softly. “I will look tonight, and if everythi