The Forbidden Wolf King: Kings of Avalier, Book 4(37)

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.

I loved that boy too much. Axil would have to toughen him up for me because my heart was too soft when it came to him. He reminded me so much of our sweet mother.

Eliza pulled me in for a final hug. “Goodbye, sister,” she whispered, her throat clogged with emotion and then I felt her, through our bond and all of the love and respect she had for me.

“What are you going to do?”

She shrugged. “Go live in the Mud Flats and marry one of your cute single packmates?”

I laughed at that and everything felt a little bit brighter. I’d have to find a way to get word to her. I never thought this would be a possibility, that Axil would step down as king and run away with me.

I could sense Axil’s urgency; the crowd was getting restless and we needed to leave before there was an altercation.

With that, Axil grasped my hand once more and I held Oslo’s with my other hand and we walked into the woods and our unknown future together.

We were about ten steps into the dense forest when my muscles suddenly constricted and it felt like I’d slammed into a wall. I stopped abruptly, gasping as an unknown power seized control over my limbs. I knew by the shocked inhale of breath beside me that the same thing had just happened to Axil.

“No,” he breathed, slowly craning his neck to peer over at me wide-eyed.

My little brother looked up at us in confusion and I swallowed hard. “Run,” I told Oslo and dropped his hand.

“Did you really think I would let you go?” Ansel’s voice boomed behind us both and then without any effort of my own, I turned around to face him.

As a dominant wolf, being controlled by another person was literally my worst nightmare. I growled, fisting my knuckles and snarling, but it was no use. He had complete power over me.

The broken-up crowd suddenly loomed behind Ansel, my brother Cyrus included and my gaze frantically searched for Eliza and Dorian.

Why weren’t they there? Did they try to fight the king and …

Relief rushed through me when I saw them waving Oslo over to them as they snuck worried glances at their new king. Oslo wisely bolted from my side and King Ansel let him go. A small mercy.

“I gave you what you wanted,” Axil growled beside me. “Let us go.”

Ansel’s eyes sharpened. “You think I wanted you to hand me my crown?” he seethed.

My heart raced in my chest and I pulled against the invisible force holding me captive to no avail.

“You should have killed me when you had the chance, brother,” Ansel whispered, and I growled.

Ansel’s head snapped in my direction and he grinned, sending a chill down my spine. The thing that scared me the most was that his eyes lacked humanity.

“You gave me your word!” Axil roared as pelts of fur rippled down his skin but he was forced to remain upright.

Ansel tipped his head back and laughed, a hollow and empty sound. “You were a fool to believe me.”

The new wolf king then turned to a line of Royal Guards and tipped his head to them. “Bring my brother and his lover to the dungeon.”

Axil and I shared a look. Axil appeared void of all emotion then, likely retreating into the dark memories in his mind of his two years in imprisonment.

This was bad, so bad. Could Ansel do this? He’d given his word in front of the wolven advisors. Yet they just stood behind him with their heads down. Was he controlling them too? If so, it was forbidden. The advisors kept the king from making bad choices: they were never to be controlled.

Eliza, Cyrus and Dorian all glared at Ansel as he passed and then my feet were thrust forward. I was like a puppet, putting one foot in front of the other as I followed the king. Eliza growled low in her throat as Ansel passed and he stopped to look at her. “Kneel,” he taunted and Eliza bowed her head and fell to her knees forcefully.

He was abusing his power. This wasn’t what the king’s magic was to be used for. It was to break up fights, and command troops in time of war so that we could fight as if we were one being. Not this.