Page 42 of The Forbidden Wolf King
The crowd’s boos got louder and I didn’t know if it was because they never liked Ansel and didn’t want him as king again, or if they hated Axil’s weak act of stepping down. As wolves we fought for dominance, we didn’t give it away. But as a king within the royal bloodline and no heir, at least two of them needed to stay alive until Ansel had a child.
“I give you my word,” Ansel said, looking to the royal wolven advisors who nodded one by one and relief washed over me.
The two brothers shook on it and then Axil took the sharp-bladed crown from his head and sliced his arm with it.
Ansel did the same and they shared blood on the blade. I knew in that moment that the power to control every other wolven had just passed to Ansel. He was now king.
Ansel grinned as he took the crown and placed it on his head. Axil nodded to him, walking away from his brother as if he hadn’t just given away an entire kingdom and birthright!
I peered at Dorian, wild-eyed, wondering if he would let me walk away from this. He must have known what I was about to do: to forfeit as a coward. And to run away with Axil meant I’d be leaving his pack. I’d need permission for that.
There was a softness in Dorian’s gaze, one he usually lacked. With one curt nod from him, I rushed forward into Axil’s arms and he lifted me off the ground, spinning me around.
The boos got louder and the crowd pushed in closer. They wanted their fight, not a forfeit and loss of their strongest king.
Ansel was a decent enough king but he now walked with a limp, which was seen as a weakness, and he was kind of cruel in my opinion.
“We need to get out of here,” Axil whispered to me. “We can go to Thorngate. Lucien will hide us.”
Lucien Thorne? The fae king?
I just nodded, trying to process it all as we pushed our way out of the crowd with Eliza, Cyrus, Dorian and my other packmates keeping the mass at bay.
“We don’t want Ansel as our king!” someone yelled.
“You coward!” another spat.
“King coward!”
“Queen coward!”
Queen coward, I’d earned a nickname before even becoming queen. That might be a record.
But the crowd seemed split because as many people who’d tried to rush us and attack, that many or more pushed them out of the way.
“Let them go!”
“They have honor!”
“She was loyal to her pack sister!”
“They’re mates!”
I absorbed everything going on as we made our way to the edge of the forest and the uncertainty that lay beyond. Flee to Thorngate? Leave our kind and the lands of Fallenmoore forever? It felt so wrong and yet when Axil slipped his fingers into mine, it felt so right.
I’d not really forfeited. Eliza wouldn’t be harmed. Axil was no longer king but we would be together. Then why did something feel off: like I was leaving something important behind?
Just as I thought of him, Oslo screamed my name.
I spun, pulling free from Axil as my little brother crashed into me and I wrapped my arms around him.
“Take me with you. Please, I beg you,” he pleaded, tears in his eyes.
I looked up at Axil, unsure what he would think of all this. He knew my brother was almost like a son to me, and that I’d raised him after my parents died.
Axil simply nodded once and relief rushed through me. I glanced at Cyrus and Dorian who flanked us, keeping the crowd back and they both dipped their heads in agreement as well.
“Okay, you can come,” I told Oslo and he pulled back from me with a grin, wiping at his leaking eyes.
