Chapter 4 - The Queenmaker BloodlineNathaniel questioned the hunters individually.
None wanted to speak.
Rowena discovered that watching a nearly seven-foot Alpha King stare silently at someone was surprisingly effective.
The first hunter broke in less than a minute.
“Gabriel sent us.”
Nathaniel’s expression did not change.
“Orders?”
“Bring the woman alive.”
Nathaniel’s wolf surged.
Rowena noticed.
She placed two fingers against his wrist.
The growl stopped.
The hunter stared at that gesture.
So did Matilda.
Rowena pretended not to notice.
Nathaniel continued.
“And me?”
“Dead.”
“Expected.”
The second hunter revealed more.
Gabriel had issued secret orders through the northern packs.
A human woman traveling with Nathaniel was to be captured.
Her description had already spread.
Brown hair.
Green eyes.
Twenty-three.
Possibly carrying a copper medallion.
Rowena looked at Matilda.
“How does he know about the coin?”
Matilda shook her head.
“Someone knows Vale history.”
Nathaniel looked toward the north.
“There is one man in Gabriel’s court who would.”
“Who?”
“Severin Black.”
Matilda cursed.
Rowena raised an eyebrow.
“I didn’t know healers did that.”
“Severin deserves worse.”
Nathaniel explained.
Severin was a royal historian.
Ancient.
Brilliant.
Once loyal to Nathaniel’s father.
After King Aldric died, Severin became Nathaniel’s adviser.
Then disappeared shortly before Nathaniel’s betrayal.
“You trusted him?” Rowena asked.
“Yes.”
“That has not gone well for you.”
“No.”
She gave him a sympathetic look.
“I’m beginning to understand why you’re suspicious.”
Nathaniel almost smiled.
They could not stay near Briar Glen.
Gabriel’s hunters had found them once.
More would come.
Matilda knew an abandoned hunting lodge two hours deeper into the woods.
They reached it before evening.
The lodge had stone walls, one chimney, and enough old furniture to make Rowena feel wealthy.
Matilda prepared moonroot tea.
Nathaniel hated it.
Rowena enjoyed that.
“You survived silver chains but are defeated by tea?”
“It tastes like boiled dirt.”
“You drank actual river water yesterday.”
“Better.”
Matilda smiled into her cup.
For several hours, they discussed the Vale bloodline.
Rowena’s grandmother Agnes had vanished from the wolf territories nearly forty years earlier.
Officially, she died during an attack on Silver Hollow.
Apparently she escaped.
Human records showed Agnes marrying Thomas Hartley in Sector Four two years later.
She had hidden her identity completely.
“Why?” Rowena asked.
Matilda looked at Nathaniel.
He understood.
“Because somebody wanted the Queenmakers gone.”
Rowena’s expression hardened.
“My grandmother spent her entire life hiding.”
“Yes.”
“From who?”
“Unknown.”
Matilda shook her head.
“By the time I joined court service, the Vales were considered extinct.”
Rowena turned the Saint’s Tear between her fingers.
“What exactly can I do?”
“Potentially?” Matilda asked.
“Yes.”
The healer exhaled.
“Recognize rightful alpha blood.”
“How?”
“You already did.”
“When?”
“The auction.”
Rowena frowned.
“The coin reacted when I touched Nathaniel.”
Matilda nodded.
“And when the chains broke.”
Nathaniel added, “The Obsidian throne is not simply inherited.”
Rowena looked at him.
“No?”
“Royal blood grants eligibility. The packs grant allegiance. The mountain grants recognition.”
“That sounds unnecessarily complicated.”
“It prevents weak heirs.”
“Didn’t prevent Gabriel.”
“He stole recognition.”
Matilda leaned forward.
“The Vale bloodline can expose false claiming.”
Rowena’s stomach tightened.
“So if I reach the throne…”
“And invoke Queenmaker right,” Matilda said, “the mountain may reject Gabriel publicly.”
Nathaniel stared at the fire.
May.
Rowena noticed.
“What aren’t you saying?”
“No secrets,” he reminded himself.
He looked at her.
“Queenmaker ceremonies are dangerous.”
“How dangerous?”
“The mountain draws power through whoever invokes it.”
“Meaning?”
“You could die.”
Rowena laughed once.
“Wonderful.”
Nathaniel’s eyes hardened.
“You will not do it.”
She stared.
“What did we discuss about orders?”
“This is different.”
“Again.”
“You could die.”
“So could you.”
“That is my responsibility.”
“No.”
Rowena leaned forward.
“You don’t get to decide that your life is expendable and mine is sacred.”
Nathaniel became quiet.
Matilda wisely stood.
“I will gather wood.”
“There is wood beside the door,” Rowena said.
“I need different wood.”
She left.
Nathaniel watched her go.
“She is not subtle.”
“No.”
Rowena crossed her arms.
“I have fifty thousand silver debt.”
Nathaniel stared.
“What?”
“I’m reminding you what my life looked like five days ago.”
“That debt is irrelevant now.”
“No.”
“It is.”
“Vincent still owns the note.”
Nathaniel’s jaw flexed.
“When I reclaim my throne—”
“No.”
He stopped.
“I don’t want royal money to erase every problem.”
“Why?”
“Because then I become dependent on you.”
“Mate bonds are interdependence.”
“I didn’t choose the bond.”
Nathaniel absorbed that.
Rowena softened.
“But I am choosing to stay.”
His eyes lifted.
“That matters.”
“Yes.”
She moved closer.
“I came north because you needed help and because I needed a way out.”
Nathaniel listened.
“I’m still deciding what you mean to me.”
Pain flickered across his face.
Very slight.
Rowena saw it.
“But I’m here.”
His expression steadied.
“That is enough.”
For now.
A storm arrived after midnight.
Rowena woke to thunder.
Then realized Nathaniel was not inside.
She found him outside behind the lodge.
Rain soaked his shirt.
He stood with both hands braced against a tree.
“Nathaniel?”
“Go inside.”
She stopped.
His voice sounded wrong.
“What’s happening?”
“Rowena.”
His body convulsed.
Bones shifted beneath skin.
His wolf.
Trying to emerge.
The wolfsbane had suppressed shifting for months.
Now the poison was weakening.
The wolf wanted out.
Nathaniel groaned.
“Inside.”
Rowena stepped closer.
“What do I do?”
“Nothing.”
His shoulders expanded.
Claws emerged.
Then retracted.
His control was failing.
“I could hurt you.”
Rowena’s heart pounded.
She should run.
Everything sensible told her to.
Instead she remembered the hooded man kneeling beneath Garrett’s knife.
She moved closer.
“Nathaniel.”
“Don’t.”
She touched his back.
The effect was immediate.
His body froze.
A pulse moved through them.
Mate power.
Nathaniel gasped.
Rowena felt it too.
Pain.
Rage.
Months of captivity.
Silver.
Gabriel laughing.
A woman screaming.
His sister?
Then another memory.
Nathaniel at seventeen.
Training in snow.
His father telling him kings were not permitted weakness.
Nathaniel at twelve, holding his dying mother’s hand.
Nathaniel at thirty, standing alone after coronation while thousands bowed.
Rowena ripped her hand away.
They both staggered.
“What was that?”
Nathaniel stared at her.
“The bond.”
“I saw your memories.”
“Yes.”
“You saw mine?”
His expression softened.
“Some.”
Rowena’s face flushed.
“What?”
“Your grandmother.”
“Anything else?”
“Your father.”
She swallowed.
Nathaniel looked away.
“And you at sixteen stealing bread because Eli Mercer’s children were hungry.”
Rowena stared.
“That was private.”
“I didn’t choose it.”
“I know.”
Thunder rolled overhead.
Nathaniel’s wolf had calmed.
Rowena suddenly realized how close they stood.
Rain ran down his face.
His eyes lowered toward her mouth.
The bond pulled.
Not magically.
Not entirely.
Something real existed beneath it now.
Days of trust.
Arguments.
Fear.
Rescue.
Nathaniel whispered, “Tell me to move.”
Rowena’s heartbeat sped.
“What?”
“If you do not want this, tell me.”
He would move.
She knew that.
That was what made her stay.
Rowena rose onto her toes.
Nathaniel bent.
Their first kiss was brief.
Soft.
Almost uncertain.
Then Rowena pulled away.
Nathaniel looked at her as though he had forgotten language.
She smiled.
“King looks surprised.”
“I am.”
“Good.”
Then his head snapped toward the forest.
Rowena heard nothing.
Nathaniel did.
“Wolves.”
“Gabriel?”
“No.”
He inhaled.
His face changed.
“Impossible.”
Figures emerged between the trees.
Seven wolves.
Not soldiers.
One woman walked ahead.
Tall.
Black hair.
A scar across her throat.
Nathaniel stared.
The woman stopped.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then she whispered, “Brother.”
Nathaniel’s face emptied.
Rowena looked between them.
This was the woman from his memory.
The sister Gabriel supposedly murdered.
Nathaniel’s voice broke.
“Elara?”
The woman began crying.
Nathaniel crossed the distance in three steps.
He grabbed her.
Elara Ashcroft wrapped both arms around her brother.
For the first time, Rowena saw Nathaniel completely lose control.
He buried his face against his sister’s shoulder.
“You’re alive.”
“So are you.”
Nathaniel pulled back.
“Gabriel told me—”
“He lied.”
“Where have you been?”
“Running.”
She looked toward Rowena.
Her expression changed.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
“The Queenmaker.”
Rowena frowned.
“Everyone knows before I do.”
Elara smiled.
Then looked at Nathaniel.
“We have a problem.”
Nathaniel laughed bitterly.
“Only one?”
“Gabriel is moving the coronation.”
His smile vanished.
“When?”
“Three days.”
Nathaniel’s face hardened.
Elara continued.
“Once the mountain seals him during the blood moon, removing him becomes almost impossible.”
Rowena looked at Nathaniel.
“How far is the Obsidian Peak?”
“Two days if we move fast.”
Matilda returned through the trees carrying absolutely no wood.
She saw Elara.
Dropped her basket.
More crying followed.
Rowena waited.
Finally she said, “So we have three days to reach a mountain full of enemy wolves, expose a false king, survive a deadly Queenmaker ceremony, and avoid being murdered.”
Elara smiled.
“Yes.”
Rowena sighed.
Nathaniel looked at her.
“You can stay behind.”
She glared.
He raised both hands.
“Suggestion.”
“Bad suggestion.”
His mouth twitched.
Elara stared at her brother.
“You smile now?”
Nathaniel’s face returned immediately to stone.
“No.”
Rowena laughed.
Elara’s eyebrows lifted.
“Oh.”
Nathaniel growled.
“Do not.”
Elara grinned.
“Mate.”
Rowena groaned.
“Please don’t start.”
Nathaniel looked toward the mountain hidden beyond storm clouds.
For the first time in seven months, his sister stood alive beside him.
His mate stood on his other side.
His throne had been stolen.
His people deceived.
His betrayer prepared to crown himself in three days.
Nathaniel’s wolf rose.
Not weak now.
Not silent.
Awake.
“Tomorrow,” he said.
Rowena followed his gaze.
“What tomorrow?”
May you like
Nathaniel’s eyes turned gold.
“We take back my kingdom.”
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