HelenaThere was joy in both kingdoms on the day of my coronation as princess. As we made our way into my parents’ city, the people were throwing flowers on the road. All around us people were singing and laughing and I could feel the excitement in the air as we made our way through the gates that led to the castle. Our family flags hung from every window in the castle and all around us, people were preparing for the huge event later that afternoon.My mother had a dress ready and I felt awkward in the enormous dress, but I would do whatever it took to make her happy. I was still struggling with it all, but I knew they were my parents. That was enough to help me push through everything that made me feel uncomfortable. The ceremony was quick and the people could be heard cheering outside the throne room as soon as I turned around with my new crown on my head.It would have been easier to take care of all the pomp and ceremony if I was never kidnapped. But since things happened the way,
HelenaI woke up in Oliver’s arms with the strangest thought. Pain is what forces us to grow. I was living a happy life when I was a rogue. I didn’t know better. I knew worse. I thought I was happy on my own until I found Oliver. I was ripped from his life and thrust into another couple of years filled with pain, but at the same time, I had the joy of having Eli with me.Pain was what forced us to grow. It was an integral part of life. We couldn’t avoid it. That was probably the worst realization I had ever come to. My children would one day also experience pain in some way and there was no way I would ever be able to stop it. I could only be there for them when they broke into a million pieces. I could help them pick up the pieces and help them glue them all back together, but I couldn’t stop them from breaking at some point in their lives.I looked at Oliver as the moonlight floated into the room, illuminating his face. This man who changed my life! He came into my life, and turned
HelenaThe news that the divided Lycan kingdom had finally become one spread far and wide. We had barely moved into the castle when the first visitors arrived. They said they were there to congratulate us and to see me, but I knew they were there to assess our strength.It was just the way things happened in our world. You can’t allow another species or group to be stronger than yours. It could mean the difference between life and death. The survival of your people depends on it. I studied our guests just as much as they were studying us. I had a bad feeling about some of them, but not all. We were officially the strongest group in our world.If we wanted to wipe some of them out, we could. We weren’t planning any wars that I knew of, but I had a bad feeling. Allowing everyone into our castle made me feel unsafe. It gave them all the opportunity to see everything. When I mentioned it to Oliver, he said I was being silly, and I was furious with him for a couple of days.Oliver hadn’t l
HelenaThe vampires were far stronger than I anticipated. They ran over our border warriors as if they were nothing and before long our entire pack was captured. Everyone was gathered in the castle square. I looked around at some of our people, and it broke my heart to see how many of them had been hurt. They were healing, which made me realize how badly some of them must have been injured.I couldn’t understand why the vampires attacked now. After all these years, we weren’t any kind of threat to anyone. After the slave traders were taken care of, we lived in peace with everyone! The king of the vampires stepped forward finally. The sneer on his face sent a shiver down the back of my spine. I really hated him. I never trusted the man, but now I hate him!He was the biggest chauvinist you would ever meet in your entire life. The man didn’t even acknowledge me when they visited us the first time. He was also a purist. Which meant he hated my kind. Werewolves were an abomination in his
HelenaHis body was cold against mine and I suddenly felt sick to my stomach! I knew what had to be done to save my people. I didn’t want to do it, but I had done many things in my life that I didn’t want to do just so I could survive.“My son is still young, your highness. Please, let us go. We will teach him. He will learn his place.” I could only hope that Victor wasn’t going to ask for the one thing I knew would break Oliver, but my sixth sense kind of told me that was what he was going to do.“Let’s make sure, shall we?” Victor smiled, and a shiver ran down the back of my spine. “Queen Helena will come to my palace as my guest. She will stay there so that I can make sure her son won’t do something stupid!”“NO!” Oliver jumped up and growled so loudly that I could have sworn I felt the earth shudder under my feet. Victor smiled at me and my heart broke as he moved with such speed that nobody saw what he planned to do until it was too late.He stood there with Oliver’s heart in his
HelenaI felt relief flooding literally my entire body when Oliver announced that he would not be handing over the throne to Eli just yet. We couldn’t do that while we were still fighting a war. There had been no time to prepare Eli to rule. It would be impossible to teach him anything about our normal day-to-day responsibilities while we weren’t living our normal day-to-day lives.Eli was furious, of course. He thought his father didn’t do it because we didn’t believe in him. No matter how hard I tried to explain it to our son, he just didn’t believe me. Everyone in our kingdom knew about the dream I had by now. Many believed that it was because of the dream that we were still fairly safe. We hadn’t lost as many men as the vampires had.Sadly, the vampires kept on finding humans to turn, no matter how many we killed. Newborn vampires, as they were called, were tougher to fight than older vampires. One or two of them finally broke through our defense lines, and we lost a couple of wol
HelenaAn agreement was reached with the vampires after negotiating for over a week. Eli agreed not to lay claim to his title and allow them to choose a new leader as long as the vampires did not attack us again. They had no other choice. Eli killed their leader. It was his right to claim the title. Thankfully, our son saw the bigger picture. He saved future generations from being attacked.It also meant that the time had finally come to hand over our titles. It was the proudest and the saddest day of my life as I watched Eli on coronation day. He had become a man. Time had flown so fast. It felt like I was holding my newborn in my arms one moment, then blinked once, and he was a grown up. We had already moved our things to the same wing that our parents were living in.Oliver was adamant that for Eli to flourish as king, we had to stick to the same procedures that had been followed for centuries. Once the younger generation took over, the older generation took a step back in all area
PhillipaAfter the huge breakfast celebration, my day was simply packed. My mother made sure I got every possible treatment over the past week, so I would look my absolute best. I knew why she did it, but neither of us said anything. She just wanted me to feel amazing when I finally met my mate. The thing that nobody realized was that I was feeling as if I had failed my parents!They had both lived such incredible lives! Hell, my brother was a hero because he killed the vampire king! I still have flashes of that horrible war sometimes. Yet another thing I pushed deep down. If someone ever opened me up and got down to the nitty-gritty inside me, they would find a pit filled with all the things I pushed down.I smiled at the omega putting fresh flowers in my hair. My first public event for the day and also my favourite part of my birthday. Sharing cake with all the children in the square. That was the one time in the year I didn’t feel as if I wasn’t enough. I was dressed in a comfortab