Queen of the Beasts *Sample*

Chapter 12

As the three of us moved away from the castle together I began to realize just how much I had missed my friends and how relieved I was to see that they hadn't been badly injured. We had spent seven years together, having no one else to lean on. We only had each other through some of our hardest years. Sure, we fought, but they were my family, they were all I had since my mother abandoned us, my brother passed, and the fire took my pack. And now I was delighted to share my new discoveries with them.

Once we were a safe distance from the palace I began to yip and bounce on my paws, thrilled to be around my little pack again. In addition to this there was also an impressive amount of reprieve for my anxiety that I had almost forgotten about. Though I had sacrificed myself to save Hunter and had taken the blows on his behalf I had still been a little worried that someone had followed the pair, that they didn't make it out completely unscathed. The silver collar that had singed my throat had shown me that the king- or at least the former king- was sick of our antics and had become more tenacious against our presence.

But there we were, chasing each other around like pups, all of us moving wonderfully which meant that none of us had been injured too badly. We would all live to see another day and for a little group of rouges that was a beautiful thing.

We moseyed further from the palace, putting kilometers upon kilometers between myself and my mate, but the fact that I had abandoned him wasn't on my mind. For the majority of the trek I was simply enthused about being reunited with my pack and thinking about everything I could tell them, like how Griffin was so kind and everyone in the palace was so considerate. We had clearly been so wrong about the world behind the walls of the palace.

But as we progressed around the forest I noticed a pair of eyes looking at me. Then another. And a third set.

I froze, trying to assess if there were more. I sniffed hard, but was unable to pull any more scents other than the two males and the one female. Then, I slowly lowered my body down, pulling my lips back as I growled loudly. My first thought was that it was the king's men, or maybe it was Archer out for a stroll with that god awful collar. Then I considered the worst option. If it was simply another pack that we had stumbled onto we would have an even harder fight ahead of us. At least the royals would go easier on me, but I still hadn't been announced which meant we were still just worthless rogues.

But to my surprise Thorn didn't try to defend himself. He didn't even look moderately concerned. He actually shifted into his feeble human form.

Alarmed and baffled, I leapt in front of the fool, still snarling at the beasts that he was deeply underestimating.

"That's enough, Violet." He soothed.

One of the wolves moved out of the coverage, holding a bundle of fabric in its mouth. The wolf's eyes locked on me, studying my hunched form warily but it continued to move closer. It was a large brown male, his wolf larger than Thorn's. But his demeanor seemed to be even more timid that Hunter's so his approach was confusing. Very soon he was within reaching distance but I refused to be the offensive one, we could easily be outnumbered by wolves who hadn't revealed themselves just yet.

"No need to be so hostile." Thorn continued. "These wolves are friends not foes."

As if to prove Thorn's statement the wolf lowered his head submissively and dropped the bundle of clothing at Thorn's feet.

"I've heard that you've been prancing around the palace like a queen." Thorn said, slipping into a pair of breeches that certainly had been stolen from a guard. He kicked a lump of blue satin towards me, "If you're going to be the most useful to us you need to practice your speech and your movement. Shift."