Aurora
“Run,” Luke whispers, his rough tone leaving little room to argue. “Run and don’t look back.”
My heart is practically beating out of my chest, watching the royals ransack my pack lands, breaking through doors and letting themselves into every home that might conceal an unmated female. Being a commoner is bad enough, we’re hardly strong enough to fight a royal, and we are about half their stature alone.
Luke, my best friend since I was born, tries to push me into the woods behind our neighboring homes, but I’m too frightened. What if they smell me? What if they chase me? I won’t be able to outrun a royal and even more, what if his wolf tries to violate mine? I’ll be impure before my own twentieth birthday and that’s a sure way to be sent to the palace as a sex slave for the royals. Either that, or their personal punching bags.
I’ve never seen a commoner female return from the palace and the only time is have heard about what happens there is when a young girl, Callie from my North Woods pack, had tried to escape. She was seen taking a beating in the streets outside the palace, the stain of her blood still on the cobblestone. Everyone knew then what happens to commoners in the place, and I know better than to find myself stuck there one day.
My parents taught me a lot of things growing up, but the main point was to always be careful when a royal is present. One wrong look, one mumbled insult, and you will end up dead. They run the world, they make the rules, and they are brutal when they don’t get exactly what they want. All I can do is hope that they don’t want me. If they do, I’m already dead.
I’m unmated, only a year and half away from turning twenty to feel my mating pull, and until I’m claimed as a commoner, I run the risk of being taken by a royal and subjected to the same cruel treatment that Callie received.
The fear keeps my feet frozen, seeing the royals bust out of the house just two doors down from my parent’s home. They’ll be here soon.
Luke shoves me to move, his once cold eyes now dark and solid gray, begging for me to run.
“What—What if they see me, Luke? I could be killed if found running away from a royal.”
“Then I’ll try to get in there way,” he growls, his teeth clenched shut. “Please, Aurora, you have to run. They’ll take you away. Go.”
I finally feel my wolf whimpering, tired but willing as I shift, my clothes tearing off and left in the ground as I sprint behind my family home, ducking into the woods just before I hear another door slammed in by a forceful kick.
I worry they have seen me take off, prompting them to follow, hearing heavy steps pace behind me. I know they would have caught me already and I look back to see Luke’s wolf keeping pace behind me. He is running the same path as I am, trying to mask my scent with his own, but we won’t know for sure if the royals have my scent until it is too late. Their senses are even more heightened than ours, everything about their powerful bodies stronger than anything we could ever hope to be.
Faster! Luke barks into my mind, speaking quick into the mind link and making me wonder if they have already found our trail. Go, Aurora, hurry up!
I try my best to sprint faster, pushing myself further, but it’s still so early in the morning and I haven’t exactly prepped for a full sprint, uphill, while my heart palpitates with utter terror.
My wolf is too weak, too tired, and I collapse near the waterfall, the halfway point between our homes and the peak of the mountain range. I shift, tumbling mid-sprint, and fall straight into the edge of the shallow water. My elbows blister, bleeding as I try to catch myself and protect my head at the same time, scraping my knees and feet when I finally skid to a stop.
“No, no, no,” Luke breathes, shifting, standing in the shallow end of the water with me. He laps water over my body, wiping away the blood, and I realize soon he is trying to mask the scent of it with the dirty, clouded water. “They will smell your blood downwind,” he grumbles, working to cover me in water and get rid of any trace of blood.
I cover my face, the water temperature colder than I would prefer, but I know it’s better than being taken by the warriors back to the palace or having one of them claim me out here in the woods. I want to cry at the level of fear that pangs in my chest, innately doomed as a female commoner without a mate.
Luke stops, kneeling down beside me, his eyes darting all over the woods, both of us seemingly afraid that we are being watched from the woods, taunted before we will inevitably be ambushed. They’ll kill Luke, the man I’ve always felt would be my mate, and I’ll either be taken to the palace or abused and ravished right here in the woods far behind my family home.
“I’m scared,” I say, shivering both in terror and at the cold bite of the falls water.
“I know,” Luke says, whispering, trying to make himself small as he cages an arm over my side, looking around frantically, the sight of his worry only making me more scared.
Are you okay? My mom calls through the link, her voice just as hysterical. Royals just came through the house, tore everything up. They found your bedroom and demanded to know where you were, Aurora, they’re taking unmated females again!
I know, I reply somberly. Luke had me run and he came with me. He tried to run behind me to mask my scent. Did the royals take off behind the house and into the woods?
The pause of silence in my mind makes me weep harder.
No, they moved on. They went through Luke’s home and his parents said they didn’t know where he was. They vouched for you as well.
What did you tell them?
I said that royals had come through a few weeks ago and already took you. Luke parent’s thankfully heard me link over and said the same thing, she says simply but something in her voice worries me.
Did they hurt you?
Again, silence plagues the link before my mother gives into my question. One of them grabbed my neck and threw me across the room. They saw my mating mark, though, and your father ran home just in time for them to leave me alone.
So, you’re both okay?
We’re fine, she replies. Stay out there for a little while longer, just incase they wait to see if you come home, Aurora. There’s too many for us to barter with if they find out.
I agree, sitting up as my wounds still leak blood, the thought of the warriors of the royal pack sticking around to find me making my stomach churn. In the past we have been able to bribe one or two royal warriors with gold pieces or homemade tapestry from my mother’s shop in town, but if there are too many to barter with, they make take it as a refusal and royals do not appreciate being told they can’t have what they want.
I shiver in the breeze, Luke pulling himself closer to my hip, wrapping an arm around my back and pulling me into his side. I steal his warmth, curled up in a meek ball, both of us watching the hills below, waiting to see if we were tracked down or not.
“It’s your birthday tomorrow,” I remind him, trying to lighten the mood.
His cold eyes don’t move away from the trees surrounding us. “Being twenty isn’t nearly as special as it sounds, little one.”
“You’ll get to find out who your mate is,” I breathe, hopeful that the outcome benefits us both.
He finally breaks, his grin small but effective, pulling his focus off of the woods and down onto me. His eyes scan my long, wet hair, white in color where the blood didn’t soak into my scalp from another mark made when I stumbled. He looks into my eyes, the feeling making me shudder, and he must assume I am cold because it forces him to hold me closer.
I nuzzle into his warm, familiar side.
No matter what happens today with the royal warriors, whether they find me or not, I plead to the moon goddess in the heavens above that I at least get the one thing I’ve ever yearned for. We are commoners, poor and weak. We aren’t given many options for clothes, and we don’t earn a fraction of gold compared to what the royals have in excess, but the one thing we sometimes get to enjoy is the mating pull.
I just want to enjoy it with Luke.
A deep, growling howl is set loose below and a series of high-pitched screams follow shortly after. I jump at the sound, listening as a young woman begs for it to stop. Luke looks aside, cringing as I do, hearing the utter sounds of helplessness flood the valley below.
I press my hands over my ears to make it stop. It needs to stop.
I need the protection of a mate. I just pray that I am Luke’s.
Aurora Nightmares of the woman’s screams haunt my sleep. I can’t help but toss and turn in bed, having to put everything back in its place from where the royal warriors tore through my stuff. They ransacked the house, too, yelling for my mother to confess on my whereabouts, and she wears the fresh bruises on her neck to show how rough they had been. It’s been long known that royals are superior. I’ve even heard rumors that they steal young females from the commoner hospital wards, forcing them to be slaves until they are useful for the salacious and sinful royals to abuse them in other ways. There aren’t many of us left in my pack, but my alpha has managed to convince the royal warriors that there aren’t any unmated females in his pack and if there were, he would gladly hand them over. I wonder if Alpha Gunther had taken a beating for lying to the royal pack warriors, knowing that they had found my room and somehow found another female
Aurora “Slow down,” Paul grumbles, snatching away my glass before the bartender can refill it. He is sick of me trying to numb my ache but in the same breath, whatever he mixed into that muting potion he gave us leaves such a sour taste in my mouth, I just need to get rid of it with something else; anything else. He tries to push my glass away, but Ann follows his moves, sticking another glass in front of me and tapping it with the top of hers. We giggle, throwing it back quickly while Paul turns to see what has transpired with his back turned. He snarls, Row busy paying the bartender, Ann and I loose and warm in the cheeks. “You will make yourself sick like this, Aurora,” Paul hums, reaching for my newest glass. I snatch it away first, pulling it to my chest like a mother bear clinging to her pup. He rolls his tan eyes. “Really, girls? “Blame Ann,” I snicker, both her and I breaking into a cackling episode of laughter.
JaxsonIt’s easy to say how I got my role as the lead warrior in the royal guard; and it’s not the relation to my father, King Alpha Kennedy. I worked hard to be the strongest warrior, the most endured fighter, and it shows when I walk through a crowd. Everyone smells the royal bloodline and when they look, they see a warrior, strong and fierce. I refuse to give up in a fight, or bend to the will of anyone that tries to challenge my father or the royal pack.Royals are the picture of prestige and strength, a group of wolves so damning in size and strength; we are the apotome of unfiltered perfection.We heard rumors of rogues searching for casinos to rob, most of those coins then taxed to the royal pack and if there’s one thing my father doesn’t like to be messed with, it’s his gold. Rogues are mostly harmless, a majority of them useless, puny commoners.They can’t stand authority.They really can&r
AuroraI can’t recall the last time I drank but I know it has never felt like it does right now. I jolt out of my warm bed, stuck in the blankets for a second, falling to the floor and having to crawl into the bathroom so I can throw up. My stomach churns, my body so sore that I feel as if I’ve been running for days on end without stopping.The memory of yesterday floods my mind while I sit by the toilet, waiting to hurl. Luke found his mate and my stomach seizes at the sight of him kissing her so outright. Everything changed so fast, too fast, that it left me in the dust to figure out alone.Then there was the casino, the endless drinks. After that my mind goes foggy.A delicious smell of pancakes and warm syrup floods my senses, and I stand slow, catching my balance. Only now do I spot myself in the mirror. I wear a long-sleeve white shirt, something I’ve never owned nor would I; it’s made for a male. Aside from tha
AuroraLuke appears outside my house, and I want to embrace him and never let go but I am inhibited by Jaxson's arm squeezing around my bicep. He drags me from my parents, being held back by warriors, and I watch them struggle at the sight of me being taken away.I leave with a small glance over my shoulder, being tugged into a horse-drawn carriage with the proclaimed prince of the royal pack. He takes a seat on the bench, and fall to the floor, flimsy with fear, his eyes burning holes into my back as the door is thrown shut. I close my eyes, expecting a hit, expecting some sort of pain or to have him finally do what royals do best with helpless, commoner girls.His brow furrows at the sight of me.As the carriage begins to move, he reaches forward to grab me but I flinch, my hands out before me, pleading that he doesn’t touch me. Now that we are alone, and my parents and best friend are out of sight, I feel vulnerable in the carriage
AuroraEven with the immaculate bed, so large I could roll over six times and still not hit the floor, I couldn’t sleep through the night. I kept tossing and turning, moving into the suite connected to my room and splashing my face with cold water, thinking it would help, but it only made it worse as I’d lay down and end up weeping into one of the millions of pillows.I feel dumbfounded at how this situation has come about, and how I should have never gone to the casino at all, but it wasn’t the worst part of the night. I could hear women being raped, being beaten, and I know for fact they are commoners. Royal men don’t hurt royal women like this.I miss Luke, my protector, my best friend.I always had a feeling Mary had a crush on him, always staring at him longingly while he and I hung out with our friend group, but I didn’t know she had already had the inclination that they were mates. I bet she knew for mont
AuroraThe cabin is small, stuffy, with a horrible stench of animal flesh and burnt cedar radiating through the small space. There’s a kitchen fit for one person at a time, chunks of meat set out on the counter, fresh and bloody from a recent kill. The living room is a few lounge chairs facing the fireplace that runs smoke outside, some of it staying dormant indoors, making it hard to breathe without tasting the stench.Jaxson pushes into the back room, something like a bedroom. The space is small, and the bed is nothing but a pile of blankets and a sleeping bag. I spot a male moving around in there already, laughing at Jaxson’s abrupt entrance into the room, and they exchange a hard handshake. Jaxson ruffles through clothes in a dresser against the wall and I watch him slip on some jeans and a flannel top. The rustic sight of a man so perfectly formal makes my head spin.That’s when his brother steps into the room, a blond kid cl
AuroraIt feels like ages before I finally fall asleep in bed, warm under the covers and exhausted from the day. Jaxson refused to speak to me after I hit him, and I feel on some level he is busy brewing with a new idea how to punish me, how to hurt me, and I can only see the way he had thrown his own warrior for grabbing me.His strength is unmatched.He left me in my new room alone for the rest of the day, the only exception being the servants coming through to bring various foods and fruits, but I hardly touched any of it. I can tell the servants are all commoners. It makes me sick to dine while they are bruised and wounded all over.I’m surprised that Jaxson hasn’t tried hurting me like they are hurt, speckling me with wounds until I conform and give into his whims. I turn nineteen in two weeks, the pressure looming while it will be a long year until my twentieth birthday, and I can tell if he’s a liar or no