New York City, and the five boroughs inside of it, was a magical hotspot of power. Early shifter leaders had learned that whomever was strong enough to rule was strong enough to join with the mecca. They could then share this energy with their entire race and strengthen the shifters’ naturally occurring gifts of speed, healing, and strength.
My people ruled Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens. The bear shifters ruled Staten Island and Brooklyn. Being at the seat of power in one of the five boroughs trickled out into the entire race around the world, and since we ruled three of the five we were the strongest. Although, even with two seats, the bears were a close second on the power grid. Over the years the bears had been our allies and our enemies. Depending on their king at the time. But right now they’d surely be gearing up to attack.
Without the bonds of a queen, we were vulnerable for the first time in a hundred years. The bears would be ready to claim another borough for themselves and tip the power scales in their favor. The only hope of stopping them was for one of us four females, all alpha heirs, to win the Summit, take the crown, and become the next queen.
“Where’s Finn?” I said, suddenly missing the presence of my white wolf familiar.
Calista didn’t reply. She knew Finn and I were bound and that I simply needed to calm my erratic energy and focus on our link.
The queen has fallen, I told him, and tried to sense where he was.
I know. I’m coming, he sent back, and I was filled with his warmth, power, and steadfastness. He was in Central Park, hunting. He liked to chase the birds and squirrels there in the summertime, while I slept. Finn had no need for sleep; he was a magical creature that none of our history books could explain. When a young shifter is born, their heir status and royal lineage is confirmed by the presence of a familiar. If they have the power to take the throne, a few days or weeks after that infant’s birth, an animal appears. For me it was Finn, the white menacing wolf who stood over four and a half feet tall and resembled a small horse in stature. In my age group, the other three heirs had a snowy white owl, a huge, thick and insidious snake, and a hawk.
Royal heir familiars stay in service until death. I rubbed the teeth mark scar on my right wrist, seeking comfort from the familiar shape and texture. That’s where Finn had bit me on my fifth birthday, the day we were bound. Ever since then we could share words and thoughts into each other’s minds.
If I died, so too would my familiar. It doesn’t work back the opposite way, but that didn’t really matter. His soul was bound to mine and if he died I would go crazy, unable to function. I would not be dead, but neither would I desire to live.
Thankfully, familiars were nearly impossible to kill.
“Ready?” Calista asked me when she was done braiding my white-blond hair into an intricate braid crown. Shaking off my thoughts of Finn, I nodded, facing her fully. For once she looked vulnerable, my fiercest advisor who had one time encouraged me to rip off a rogue wolf’s manhood for raping one of my females. Now she looked … scared. The emotion made me uncomfortable.
“There is no place for fear in the Summit,” I said, my voice low.
Her chin jutted up, jaw clenched, as she nodded. When I turned my back to leave, I allowed myself my own moment of vulnerability. I knew why Calista was afraid. She feared I would die. I’d trained my entire life for this series of tasks, battles, and tests of strategy, but the danger of death during the Summit of the four heirs was very real.
I never seriously thought I would get to this moment.
I left through the double doors of my master bedroom, striding across the hall and out into the main area of my top-floor penthouse. My dominants were waiting, all six of them already suited for battle, two females and four males. It pained me not to have Violet here, my best friend and the Bronx pack’s rare and only magic born. The Red Queen had sent Violet to London on official business and she would not be back for a few more days. There were only four magic-born wolf shifters in all the world, so Violet was often called on for help in other countries.
My dominants closed in around me. They were on high alert.
“You think we’ll have trouble on the way?” I inquired of Blaine, standing at the fore.
The husky alpha wolf with deep auburn hair was one of my oldest friends and the commander of my dominants. Squaring his shoulders, he said: “You have just become one of the most valuable women in the shifter world. We’re not taking any chances.”
My heart stilled. That really put it into perspective for me. The entire shifter world would be watching, waiting on this outcome. If one of the four heirs didn’t rise to power, then the wolves around the world would weaken and the bear king would certainly leave Staten Island and invade our territory, stealing our power. I wouldn’t let that happen. No, the Red Queen’s legacy would live on.
Some of the panic must have crossed my face because Blaine reached out then, before catching himself. Touching me as an heir had never been a problem, but protocol dictated that no one touch the queen. She could touch them but not the other way around. I fell under this royal banner now, so I closed the distance, squeezing his hand.
“You were born to be queen,” Blaine said as he leaned in closer to me. “None of the other heirs even have a chance. Just think back to all the times you kicked my ass in combat, and in mecca chess. You got this.”
I smiled and, with a nod, pulled my hand back, feeling more grounded. He’d reminded me that I was still the same shifter I had been twenty minutes ago, before the entire world changed. I had trained for this and I was ready.