The Hidden Queen - A New Adult, Why Choose Shifter Reverse Harem

PROLOGUE - FOURTEEN YEARS OLD

Aria

          The snow from the recent storm cakes itself between my toes as my bare feet pad across the forest floor. The moon is full and high in the sky, and the forest is eerily quiet, not even any crickets chirping or nocturnal animals scurrying about. The moon gives me just enough light to make out the fallen logs and branches covered in snow on the ground. Before too long, the clear white snow slowly becomes dotted with grass and I come up to a clearing with a group of hot springs, and the back of a cave as the hot springs backdrop. The moon reflects its light on the pools' surfaces, steam rising from the water.
          I walk over the snow spotted with grass, my feet marking my footsteps by flattening the snow, grass and blue/purple, red and white wild flowers before I take a seat on one of the cold snow covered rocks circling one of the smaller pools, dipping my bare feet in the warm water and warming my feet up. Even though I'm cold, I'm not freezing, which is a little weird.
          It is the middle of winter. I should be freezing in my thin nightgown. The rock I chose allows me to see the clearing that seems to have the moons full focus. The area is surrounded by white trees, and is glowing with moonlight, as bright as if it was the middle of the day.
          I sigh and slowly swing my legs in the water as I take in the beautiful scene. Movement from the right flashes in the corner of my eye, causing me to snap my head in that direction, my longer than normal hair flying into my face. It must have been the wind moving a tree branch so I frown and look down at my body, wondering what the frick is going on with it. It looks like Mom's.
          My breasts are larger, like I've finally finished growing, and my flat stomach is toned. My jet black hair is also longer, the silky soft strands falling over my shoulders to tickle the tops of my thighs.
          A purring sound from the middle of the clearing snaps me out of my silly worries about my body. I look up and gasp, freezing as I see a really big wolf standing there, staring at me. The two of us stare at each other for a moment, neither of us moving as we take each other in.
          The wolf has long deep red fur that looks as soft as a cloud, like he has an owner who bathes him, and glowing bronze brown eyes. The red wolf is ten times the size of a normal wolf and his eyes glow, like he's got a lightbulb behind each eye. I don't know how, but I'm one hundred percent sure the wolf is a male, even before I look between his front paws and see his private area.
          The wolf huffs and brings my eyes back to his, seeing his tongue hanging out of his mouth. It seems like he gives me a smile before he snaps to attention, a small growl trickling out of his throat as his eyes dart to the trees behind me.
          I slowly turn around, only to see another really big wolf. I carefully get off the wet rocks and move back to the clearing, choosing the gorgeous red wolf instead of the snarling grey, glowing red eyed one.
          For some reason, he makes me feel safe, and I really need that right now. I was stupid and wandered off in the middle of the night, and now I'm going to get eaten by that grey wolf. I know without a doubt, somehow, that the red wolf won't hurt me.
          As I slowly back up, I turn to look over my shoulder, wanting to see the red wolf, only for four sets of glowing eyes to snap in my direction, when I stumble and trip over my feet, falling to the snowy, wet floor, gasping at the sight in front of me as I stain my nightgown with snow that melts from my body heat.
          The red wolf isn't alone anymore. Standing on the right side of him is the biggest white leopard I have ever seen and as he looks at me with his shining green eyes, his face relaxes from his snarling expression, his head lowering a little.
          But that's not even the weirdest thing. To the right of the leopard is a really, really, really, big dragon. He repositions himself from a cat-like sitting position - with his tail wrapped around his body on the ground, his wings pulled into his body - to lying down, his tail and wings still close to his body as if he's trying to make himself smaller, his glowing blue/grey eyes softening a little as he takes me in.
          My shock soon wears off at seeing the three of them standing together before the dragon slowly stretches towards me and softly nudges me to his shoulder, his head and neck wrapped around my body, his skin surprisingly soft and warm for the hard scale looking texture.
          The grey wolf doesn't seem to like this as I hear a twig snap as it lets out a bark and ferocious growl before more twigs snap behind me. The dragon doesn't let me turn around, still nudging me to get closer to him. The leopard springs into action, bounding over my head in one jump. My mouth falls open as my head falls back, tracking his movement above me in wonder and amazement.
          The red wolf quickly follows the leopard - although he runs around me instead of jumping over me -, joining the fight. For the next few minutes, all I can hear is the fight raging on, whines, growls and barks sounding from behind me. The dragon huffs as the forest falls silent again for a moment, before a long piercing howl erupts into the night.
          A howl that sounds weirdly like police sirens.
          I gasped as I woke up, blue and red light flashing through my window. What the frick? I throw my Vampire Diaries printed blankets back before I got out of bed and opened my bedroom door, hearing sirens in the front yard.
          Mom was standing in the lounge room, tears falling from her eyes as a police officer talked quietly to her. "I'm sorry, ma'am. He's gone.." he trailed off, giving her a sad, sympathetic smile.
          "No. He can't be. He was just on the phone with me. I just heard his voice. David can't be dead." Mom cried.
          "Dad's dead?"
          "I'm sorry miss. He died about an hour ago in a car crash." The police officer told me when he spotted me standing in the hallway doorway.
          "Don't listen to him, Aria. He's lying. Your father isn't dead." Mom sniffled. "Go back to bed."
   "Ma'am.." the officer trailed off, looking between the two of us. "He's truly gone.."
   "What happened?" I asked, a tear slipping from my eye.
   "Go back to bed, Aria!" Mom snapped, glaring at me over her shoulder. More tears fell from my eyes as I quickly turned around and ran back to my room.
   I slammed the door close and jumped into bed, pulling the covers over my head as I balled my eyes out. Mom might not believe the police officer but I did. Dad's dead. He's never coming back, and I'm now all alone.
   Mom and I weren't close, we never have been. Dad had always been my rock, and now he's gone. He'll never walk through the front door again with a loving smile for me, or wake me up with pancakes in bed for my birthday. He'll never crack one of his horribly bad dad jokes.
   He's just gone.

A/N

          This is my first attempt at writing a reverse harem so I really hope it's good. I don't have an uploading schedule as I'm a new single mother and I can barely find time to clean my clothes.
          I'll try my best though.
          I really hope you guys enjoy it, and I would really appreciate it if you would comment and let me know what you guys think so I can improve and change my course with this book if I need to :)
          I don't want to be one of those authors who always writes long A/N's, or putting A/N's at the end of every chapter, so I'm gonna go, and I'll see you when I next upload :)