The Forbidden Wolf King: Kings of Avalier, Book 4(36)

It was time and Dorian would find out my plan soon enough. Best not to worry him.

I turned back around and pulled the big alpha in for a hug. “You’re a good man, Dorian, and you were a great alpha,” I whispered into his ear as his arms tightened around me.

When I pulled back, he looked surprised at my words, his eyebrows knotted in the center of his forehead in confusion.

I walked over to my coach, my big brother, and pulled him in for a hug next. “Don’t let Oslo see. Keep him in the tent,” I told him and he nodded against my shoulder. Cyrus was clueless to my plan as well but he knew I was protective over my little brother and probably just thought I didn’t want him to see me get injured or kill Eliza.

After turning from my pack, I followed the guards to the fighting ring. I had barely slept, I hadn’t eaten and nausea rolled through my stomach as the crowd chanted my name. I looked up to see Axil sitting on his throne: today he wore the sharp-bladed crown of the king wolven. His brother Ansel stood beside him, glaring at me with his wife Jade at his side.

This would please his brother, to see that we would not end up together. His little brother and king would not marry Mud Flat trash after all.

I turned my attention to the center of the dirt circle to see Eliza, standing tall and beaming at me.

“No rules for this fight! Anything goes!” the elder advisor shouted behind me.

I walked right up to Eliza and placed my hands on her shoulders. “Be good to him,” I told her and she frowned in confusion at my words.

The bell rang and I spun, giving Eliza my back.

I tipped my chin high and raised my voice for all to hear. “I have no doubt I am the strongest wolf in this ring. But Eliza Green is my packmate! We forged a bond so strong even the king himself could not tear it away.”

There were shocked gasps from the onlookers and even howls as people stepped closer to me, knowing what I was about to do.

“And even though I’ve loved that man since I was fifteen,” I pointed to Axil, “I cannot hurt my pack sister.” Eliza crashed into me, wrapping her arms around me from behind, sobbing.

“No,” she said but I ignored her.

“I, Zara Swiftwater of Mud Flat pack, for—”

“I step down as king!” Axil cried out, cutting off my words and my entire body went limp. I could barely hold myself up as shock ripped through me. The crowd shared my sentiment as they wavered on their feet, gasping, booing and screaming.

Dorian was so bowled over by the king’s comment that he spun his attention away from me and we both faced Axil.

“The law states that the Queen Trial must end if a king ever steps down from duty and hands his crown over,” Axil said and then walked down from the throne and strode over to his brother and his brother’s wife. Ansel was as still as a snake before it was about to strike. Axil faced him and took in a deep breath. “I’ll give you back the title of Alpha King if you let Zara and I run away together. You will never see me again,” he told him.

I knew then that he’d planned this all along, that if it looked like I might lose he’d always been ready to do this. His voice didn’t shake, he was so calm, like he’d planned it for months.

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.