The Forbidden Wolf King: Kings of Avalier, Book 4(34)

“I’ll figure something out,” I told her but I knew my words were a lie. What was there to do? Stop a tradition that was over a thousand years old? We’d both be torn apart. The wolven people needed a strong queen and this was how they chose her. I was as much a victim to the circumstance as Eliza was.

We continued to hold hands as the night dragged on and sleep pulled at my limbs. It must only have been a few hours before sunrise but I could feel the heaviness of exhaustion pressing down on me. Eliza’s breathing evened out and I closed my eyes, only for a second, and fell asleep.

“Wake up. Look!” Eliza’s voice infiltrated my brain and my eyelids snapped open. I was disoriented for a moment, wondering where I was and why I was being woken. I could easily go for another ten hours’ sleep. Thick grogginess weighed me down but then I remembered I’d fallen asleep on the rock with Eliza and today was our fight.

I sprang into a sitting position and gasped when I saw what was before me. The realm that was once bathed in darkness was now covered with oranges and pinks across the entire horizon. The sunlight kissed the land as far as the eye could see and I was shocked at how far the visibility stretched from here. I could almost see the edge of the Mud Flats, blurry in the distance.

I looked over at Eliza to see a single tear slide down her cheek. She was so filled with life and innocence, I just couldn’t allow that to be extinguished. It was in this moment that I realized she would make an amazing queen. The love of her people and this land was exactly what a queen should have. I reached out and squeezed her hand, coming to terms with my own future just as she did.

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

I nodded. “Breathtaking.”

We sat in silence for another few moments and then the people began to move down below, stoking their fires and cooking their breakfast.

“Axil wanted to see me,” she said.

I nodded. “I’ll go with you.”

We stood and then made our way off the mountain and past the guards who watched us carefully, a hand on the blade at their hip.

When we reached the front doors of the castle, the guard stepped aside without question and let us in. We were instructed to go to the dining hall where we found Axil sitting in front of an untouched plate of food.

It seemed we weren’t the only ones preoccupied about the battle to come. Eliza was his wolf; he’d grown up with her. Knowing I had to kill her to be with him couldn’t have sat well with him.

“Eliza, Zara, thanks for coming.” He plastered on a fake smile as we approached.

Eliza stood before him and extended her wrist. “I think this will be easier on all of us if I rejoin Death Mountain pack before the fight.”

Axil’s fake smile faltered but he nodded. “I agree.”

Then he looked at me, as if asking if it were okay. It was hard to explain but I felt like Eliza’s alpha. I didn’t really know how all that worked since Dorian was my alpha but … she felt like mine.

I bit the inside of my cheek and nodded. For some reason I was sad. I didn’t want to feel the gaping hole left behind by her, the same hole that any pack member left when they went to marry and join another pack. But she … she was mine, I’d claimed her and we’d worked together to stay alive out there in the dead lands.

Axil shifted his fingers to claws and dragged them across her arm, forcing blood to come to the surface. Then he scratched his own arm, mixing the blood.

My heart beat wildly in my chest and I could feel Eliza’s hesitation. She didn’t want to do this either. She was Mud Flat pack now and it felt so right. But I’d taken her in as a pack sister without permission of my alpha, or hers, and so I knew this must be done.

Axil mumbled under his breath and I felt a sharp sudden squeezing at my heart, Eliza gasped and I knew she’d felt it too. I looked at Axil and his brows were drawn into a knot at the center of his forehead. He mumbled words under his breath and again I felt that pain in my heart but Eliza was still there. I felt her strength and innocence.

Axil released a shaky breath and then stared at me. “Your bond is too strong. I can’t take her back.”

Eliza had this resigned look on her face but I felt horrified by the whole thing. It was just proof that we were family now.

“Will you give us a moment?” I asked her.

She nodded, squeezing my shoulder as she passed. “I’ll go see my parents and sister one last time and then meet you in the ring.”

Bile rose in my throat at that and then she left. The second the door closed, I rushed into Axil’s space. “I can’t, Axil. I won’t. I love you but I can’t kill her.”

He swallowed hard, nodding. “She’s going to forfeit.”

I froze. “How did you know?”

“She came to me late last night and told me.” He looked sick as well. “And I haven’t slept since. I never expected her to make it this far to be honest. You made her stronger, you turned her into a tough contender.”

I did. I prolonged the inevitable. Stupid me.

“Can you … I don’t know, talk to the advisors? Axil, she’s my packmate, the trials are supposed to be one woman from each pack.”

He wouldn’t meet my gaze, he was staring at his plate of food. “I tried. An hour ago. They said the strongest woman must be queen and that’s why the trials were designed this way. The people will accept nothing less.”