The Forbidden Wolf King: Kings of Avalier, Book 4(45)

“Zara, I’ve waited years to finally have you. I’m not letting anything tear us apart. Even death.”

Did it work like that? Would death not claim him because it felt sorry for us? A girl could dream. What Axil needed was someone rooting him on, a woman who stood by him and believed in him.

“Good,” I told him, leaning forward and dragging my tongue across his lips. “Because I haven’t kissed you enough for you to die yet.”

He growled, grasping my butt and standing with me in his arms. Walking over to the edge of the table, he dropped me down onto it. His lips locked with mine and then he consumed me. Every inch of my body was kissed on that table. He threw the dirty food plates to the floor, uncaring about the mess it made. In that moment we allowed love to devour us both, mind, body and soul.

I was Axil’s and he was mine. If he died tomorrow, I would have no others after him. There was no point in comparing any man to this one who held me now. They didn’t pale in comparison, they vanished.

FIFTEEN

Watching a wolf tear into the man that you loved, while you stood by helpless, was the most gut-wrenching thing I’d ever had to do. Now I knew how Axil must have felt when he’d watched me do the same over the last week. He was on his fifth fight now and though he was winning, he was hurt. I didn’t understand why he wasn’t allowed to do one fight a day or something more manageable, but I supposed if they wanted the strongest to lead us, this was his way to prove it.

Fight six alphas in one day and live to tell the tale.

The Royal Guard stood in a semi-circle towards the back of the fight, no doubt wondering who they would be pledging their allegiance to at the end of the day.

Now I stood in almost the same spot as Axil had when he’d watched me fight in the Queen Trials, right next to his empty throne. The queens of Avalier stood beside me as I held on to Eliza’s hand in fear and Axil tore into his opponent’s neck.

One more fight, I told myself and then glanced over at the giant of a man who would be Axil’s last opponent. Brutus was wider than Axil and probably taller too. His arms were riddled with small scars that looked to be from a knife and his head was shaved clean. Brutus stood tall as he watched Axil attempt to end the life of the Copper Canyon alpha.

I steeled myself as Axil took the wolf’s neck into his mouth and then a large shadow passed over all of us. Every single person in the crowd craned their neck and tilted their faces upward towards the sky. They pointed to something and then a shadow blotted out the sun.

I spun to see a giant black dragon descending from the clouds. The Royal Guard moved to reach for their bows but the dragon queen rushed forward.

“He’s with me,” she assured them.

I stared in awe as the large black dragon landed on the open grass with a man sitting in a saddle on his back.

The dragon king was here.

The sound of Axil’s whimper drew my attention back to the fight and my head whipped around just in time to see the Cooper Canyon wolf he’d pinned swipe his claw right across Axil’s eye, nearly taking it out of the socket.

No!

Axil lunged forward and finished the wolf, ripping his throat out in one clean bite but my heart leapt into my own throat when he looked back at me with one closed eye.

He’d lost his sight in one eye.

No.

No.

No.

It was a death sentence. Especially going up against Brutus next. I looked over at Ivanna’s old alpha and he was grinning ear to ear.

“Alright, final fight of the day. Let’s do this.” Brutus stepped into the ring and I did as well, a growl rising in my throat. He was completely ignoring the fact that a dragon had just landed on the lawn and that Axil had an injured eye. It was a weak move, one I needed to protect my man from.

“The king needs water and to hold council with his training coaches,” I called out, stalling for time.

Training coaches? Technically he didn’t even have one. But Dorian and Cyrus could pretend to give him tactical advice so that we could check his eye and give him a chance to catch his breath. If we stalled long enough, maybe his eye could naturally heal. Maybe it wasn’t that bad. Maybe—

“What’s going on here?” a commanding voice boomed from behind me. I’d forgotten about the dragon king. He’d come at the wrong time if he wanted us to roll out the pleasantries.

Dorian and Cyrus moved into the center of the fighting ring to check on Axil while I turned to face Arwen’s husband.

He was a mountain of a man, built much more like us wolven than the skinny fae and elvin. He was staring wide-eyed at Axil’s bleeding wolf in the center of the fighting ring, clearly shocked to see his old friend, the king, in such a state.

One of the red-robed advisors stepped closer to the dragon king and extended his hand. “King Drae Valdren? You’ve come at an inopportune time—”

“What is going on here?” the dragon king commanded again, holding the stare of the wolven advisor like an alpha would. I liked that he was creating a scene, because it was buying time for Cyrus and Dorian to tend to Axil so I said nothing.

The advisor cleared his throat. “There must be two heirs of royal blood or the king has to enter into a challenge fight with whomever challenges him,” he said. “Last night, Ansel Moon was killed and, therefore, King Axil must fight to keep his place as our leader.”

Drae looked upset at that news that his old friend was having to fight to keep his birthright and I instantly felt guilty for putting him in that position by killing Ansel. Maybe we should have just locked him up …