“Selene of the Purple Hearts pack, I now declare you queen of the wolf shifters.”
The council faced the new queen and shouted, “Long live the queen!”
Just like that I had been replaced.
“Arianna, I cast you out of the boroughs. You may never enter the mecca again.” Selene’s banishment cut right into my soul. She’d just barred me from my home, from the one place an heir could feel the mecca, the power.
Well, since I had nothing left to lose, I might as well go out chopping that damn snake into a thousand pieces. Calista must have known what I was thinking, because her hand clamped around my upper arm in a death grip.
“Good luck,” Calista told them all, and then with surprising strength yanked me backward down the hallway. My suitcase was at the base of the stairs, and I realized she’d brought it down with her before. She grabbed it and then we were moving, out of the mansion and through the open back door.
Once we were in the large open back yard, I turned to my advisor. “Why didn’t you let me kill her!” Fury was riding my body in waves. This couldn’t be happening. How was this happening?
Calista looked at Finn as if they’d shared some thought. “Because I want you to live,” she said shortly, before she took off stalking into the woods behind the estate.
I ran after her. “Where are we going?”
Calista shook her head, ignoring my question: “Arianna, I raised you like a daughter. Why didn’t you just tell me.”
She was talking about Kade. “Because I was trying to fight it,” I said, my voice filled with truth.
Calista paused so she could reach out and cup my face with one hand. “You can’t fight love, baby girl.”
My throat pinched at her term of endearment. She hadn’t called me that since I was eight years old. Then she straightened her shoulders and took off again, pounding through the forest.
“Cal, where are we going?” I asked again as I ran to catch up, Finn trotting beside us.
Calista looked back at me. “If King Kade really loves you, then he may take us in, because as of right now we’re homeless.”
We were making our way to Kade’s mansion, where he had kissed me in the garden. Life really knew how to come full circle.
Our journey across the Island was silent. I mourned for so much, but forced myself to deal with what I could. I needed Kade, whether I was queen or not, and this thing with the fae was not over. They had Violet, and I needed his help to get her back. Plus, we had to fix the imbalance. I still had a connection to the mecca. The council and Selene had made a mistake trying to rush this dethroning through under the noses of our people. A queen was about more than just a bit of blood in a cup, she was about the love of her people. It would take Selene time to prove herself, especially when she had usurped me in such a manner. Knowing her, she would try leak the video of Kade and me. The council would attempt to stop her though. The fact a queen could love a bear might just be enough to have some shifters questioning our ways. They would not want that. All it took was a little spark for a full-on fire to be fanned to life.
We’ll be fine, Ari. You’re a queen. You don’t need a throne to prove that. And we will always have each other.
I dropped to my knees and buried my head in Finn’s soft fur. Breathing in deeply, I let his familiar warmth, his scent and power drag into my lungs, into my battered soul. I let him soothe me for just a moment, and in return I poured my love back into him.
Thank you, old friend. I couldn’t do any of this without you.
He licked up the side of my face, before gently nudging me to start walking again. Calista had paused too, and when I got to my feet she smiled at me. “We’re in bear territory now. Weird that I’m strangely relieved to be off wolf land.”
I shook my head. “I feel the same, but it’s always been that way with Kade. Wherever he was, I wanted to be. Even when I was fifteen. I’ve never been able to stop thinking about him.”
Calista grasped my hand. “I understand. All too well. We both spent our entire lives in the service of the crown and the council, letting protocol dictate everything we did. And this is how they repay you. They never even let you speak. They never even questioned that Selene and Sabina were working together, and in doing so actually allowed the fae access to our lands. Their cloaking was the perfect cover. What if it wasn’t a coincidence and those two are working with the fae? For all we know Selene is going to let them slaughter all who oppose them, and the rest would become slaves.”
I brushed my hand across my face. The headache had died off a little, but the loss of mecca had me off balance. “You’re right. This could be far worse than we imagined. I need to get to the royal home in Manhattan and open the portal to the Otherworld. I need Violet so we can rebalance the energy. That might be enough to make the fae stay in their world.”
“What happened to the Summer Court?” Calista asked as we started walking again. I picked up the suitcase this time. “Weren’t they supposed to be keeping the Winter Court at bay?”
I shrugged. “Violet communicated with Prince Caspien just before the festival started and he said he was in a good position then. I don’t know what happened after that to turn the tides.” I slammed my hand against a nearby tree. “It’s so frustrating. We were so close to ending this and Selene’s need for power has put us all the way back to the beginning. It’s even worse than it was before.”