Royal wolf box set, p.23
Royal Wolf Box Set, page 23
Everything, except Samar. There was still something that seemed off with her. It seemed like she was in pain. But anytime Aeron asked her about it, she simply brushed his question aside and changed the topic to something else. He could tell that she didn’t want him to worry about her, but he was worried. He may not have known very much about Kitsune, but he did know enough to be able to tell that she was hiding something from him, and he didn’t like it.
It wasn’t until he had overheard Samar talking with Cassandra from just outside the kitchen that he became aware of what it was. He stood to the side of the doorway and listened.
“There must be something we can do,” Cassandra said.
Aeron could hear distress in her voice, and he knew that Cassandra rarely ever sounded worried. Whatever they were talking about must have been bad.
“There is not,” Samar said. “I pushed my Kitsune power too far. I had no choice but to try and save the forest. This place and all of you have become my home. I couldn’t let it burn down.”
“I understand that,” Cassandra said. “And we feel the same way. There has to be something that can help.”
“There isn’t,” Samar said again. “I’m dying.”
Samar went on to explain to Cassandra how a Kitsune that uses too much of its magic all at once can become so drained that she never recovers. Without magic, the Kitsune will soon die. But Aeron didn’t hear any of that because right after he heard Samar say the word “dying,” everything seemed to go mute in his ears, and the hallway suddenly looked blurry and as if the walls were closing in around him.
He wouldn’t believe that; he couldn’t. The mere idea that Samar might actually be dying was so heinously overwhelming to him that he couldn’t even think rationally about it. He didn’t know what to do, so his wolfish nature did it for him. He shifted, right there in the middle of the corridor. That was something that Theo would do out of reckless abandon, but definitely not something that Aeron would. But his shifter side was stronger, and it was going into self-preservation mode. It wasn’t going to let him become paralyzed by fear or sorrow.
Aeron ran down the hall on his four padded feet and ran straight out into the open. He ran past terrified humans that thought somehow a wolf had gotten into the castle and straight into the forest. Against his typical behavior, he ran through the woods at a furious pace until everything was a blur, even his own thoughts. He ran until his chest burned and his paws were raw. He ran until the wind had torn at his eyes and saliva was spilling from his mouth as he tried to push air into his lungs. He was beside himself. He didn’t even feel like himself anymore. He felt like everything he loved got taken from him, and he felt as if he would disappear.
Aeron narrowly missed colliding into another wolf who cut across the forest to intercept him. It was Rubius, and a feeling of dread immediately overcame Aeron as he shifted quickly back into a man, fearing that Rubius had tracked him down to deliver devastating news.
“What has happened?” Aeron asked in a frenzy.
“Nothing,” Rubius said. “But Cassandra saw you outside the kitchen, and she told me about the conversation you overheard. I’ve come to talk with you.”
Aeron shook his head.
“I don’t need to talk about my feelings of despair,” he said. “And I certainly don’t need to talk about it with you.”
“You can be as nasty to me as you’d like,” Rubius said. “I’ve got a thick skin that can take it. But I think I might be exactly who you need to talk to right now. I know about love and loss, and I know how it feels to watch helplessly from the sidelines while the woman you love makes every decision that you cannot. I know that you want to do something, anything to be with her, and that it is tearing you up that you can’t control what will happen. Does that sum it up fairly accurately?”
Aeron sighed and sank down to the ground to sit naked upon the dirt. Rubius was right. He did know what he was going through.
“What will I do if I lose her too?” Aeron asked. His voice cracked as he spoke, and he tried not to give in to sorrow.
“You will not lose her,” Rubius assured him as he sat down next to him. “Just as you have never lost Cassandra.”
“What are you talking about?” Aeron asked.
He lifted his face up and tilted it to the side in confusion at what Rubius had said. He had lost Cassandra—to Rubius.
“A part of Cassandra will always belong to you,” Rubius said. “I admit that I tried to deny that fact for a while, but when I realized that there was nothing that I could do to change it, then I began to get comfortable with the idea. Cassandra may have chosen to be with me, and I know that she loves me as much as I love her. But there is a love for you that she still also carries in her heart, and that part of her will always only belong to you. The same is true for Samar. No matter what happens, we cannot help but leave imprints of ourselves on those we care about.”
The two men were a sight to see, sitting nude and cross-legged on the open and muddied floor of the forest. It was not a conversation that Aeron would have guessed they would ever have.
Rubius had hoped that their talk would temper Aeron’s reckless reactions to hearing of Samar’s condition. He was hoping that he could bring Aeron back to the castle with him in a peaceful and supportive demeanor to speak with Samar. But instead, even though the talk with Rubius had made sense to him, Aeron decided to go another route. He decided that he would become obsessed with the impossible. He would fixate on achieving the one thing that he knew would soothe his heartache and make things right again.
“I’m going to find a way to prevent Samar from dying,” Aeron said.
Rubius looked at him with a heavily furrowed brow.
“You can’t keep death from her,” he said to Aeron. “I don’t know how long she has, or how grave her condition is. But no one can escape from death.”
“What good is it for me to be alpha, and king, if I cannot even save the ones that I love?” Aeron said.
Rubius looked at him with concern, as if he was looking into the eyes of a madman who was slowly descending into lunacy.
“I will find a way to save her. I will make sure that Samar does not die.”
“Aeron—”
But he wasn’t’ listening to Rubius. He was focused on a new purpose now, one that would fix everything. Aeron was going to find a way to prevent Samar’s death.
Chapter Fourteen
Aeron’s defiance to lose anyone else that he cared about started to consume and unravel him. He thought of nothing else.
As soon as he had returned to the castle, he went to Samar’s side, kissed her softly, and professed how much he loved her. He told her not to worry and that he would save her again this time. Samar was weak and confused about what he was saying. But even in her deteriorating state, she could see that her death would be Aeron’s undoing.
“Aeron, please, don’t worry about me,” Samar said with tears in her eyes. “I’ll be okay, no matter what happens. But you need to keep going. You need to watch over your family and protect your kingdom. Wherever I am, I will always be with you, watching over you and loving you from afar.”
“No!” he shouted as he stood up abruptly. “Stop talking as if you have already died. You are not going to die. I won’t let it happen.”
“But you can’t—”
Before Samar could say anything further, Aeron bent down to kiss her again, and then he left to go scour every inch of his kingdom for anyone that had knowledge about Kitsune. The humans in the kingdom might not have known that such things actually existed, but they still heard stories of them. Perhaps in one of those stories which the humans believed to be fairytales, there would be an answer to help him save Samar.
Rubius worried for the king’s mental health, but soon, his worries became even more urgent. Whispers were circling that the other kingdom was preparing to launch a second attack. Rubius should not have let the survivors retreat. He should have killed them all, but he was merciful and good-hearted, and he saw no point in commencing with needless death. Unfortunately, one such survivor was the alpha, and they had not run away into hiding after learning their lesson. They had simply pulled back to regroup. The other kingdom still had enough in number to be a formidable force since they hadn’t come with a full battalion before, and perhaps that had played into their hand the entire time. Perhaps they had meant to flee so that they could come back even stronger a second time, after Aeron’s people had been weakened. It seemed to be about more than just the Kitsune now. It was a matter of pride, a matter of avenging fallen companions. Rubius suspected their greed to overtake Grenvich was even a factor. The other kingdom and its alpha were not so easily going to walk away in peace.
But Aeron was much too busy focusing on trying to save Samar to pay any attention to the security of the kingdom or what was going on outside of its walls. The entire royal family began to worry that the next attack would be worse, and that they may not win a second time. Especially not with the king so distraught and distracted. While Aeron was out in the city, still searching for answers to save a dying Kitsune, the rest of his family gathered in one of the meeting halls of the castle to discuss what to do. Cassandra was shocked when she saw Samar come to stand at the doorway of the hall.
“Samar? You’re out of bed! Is everything all right?” Cassandra asked as she rose to her feet and walked over to the doorway.
“Yes,” Samar said. “Can I talk with you for a moment?”
“Of course.” Cassandra took her hand, and the two of them walked back toward her bedroom together.
“Cassandra,” Samar said once she had gotten back into bed. “I want you to take me into the forest.”
“Why?”
“Because that is where I am going to die.”
“How do you know when you will die?” Cassandra asked her with a grave look on her face.
Samar smiled at her with sad eyes and told her about the death of a Kitsune.
“When I die,” Samar said, “my body will vanish. If I die by my own hand, then I will be able to control the exact moment of my death. And if you are holding onto one of my tails when I die, then my tail will stay with you.”
“I don’t understand,” Cassandra said with a look of slight abhorrence on her face. “You want to kill yourself?”
“I am going to sacrifice myself in order to make sure that you can keep my tail and give it to Aeron,” Samar answered.
“No, I’m sorry,” Cassandra said, shaking her head quickly from side to side. “I can’t do that. I can’t condone you taking your own life just so that you can leave a tail behind.”
Samar reached out and took Cassandra’s hand in hers.
“I’m dying anyway,” she said. “It won’t be long before this option won’t even be available to me any longer. There’s nothing that anyone can do to save me, not even Aeron, although I know he is desperate to try. But if you can help me with this, then at least a part of me will remain here with him.”
Cassandra looked torn. She knew that Aeron was going to be heartbroken. She also knew that he would be furious at her for helping Samar during an attempt to take her own life.
“Besides,” Samar continued, “I have heard what you and your family have been discussing. The war is not over, and this time, you are far less prepared. You will not have your husband’s full attention on the battle so long as he is focused on me. And you will not have me to help with any of my magic. If Aeron has my tail, it will ensure that he wins the war.”
“How can that be so?” Cassandra asked. “How can one fox tail ensure victory over a war?”
Samar grinned weakly.
“It’s not just a fox tail,” she said. “It’s a Kitsune tail. It will grant Aeron power as the alpha that he has never had before. He will be a force to be reckoned with and will be able to defeat countless enemies with ease. In the hands of an alpha, a Kitsune tail will make him nearly unstoppable.”
“Why aren’t you granted that same sort of power then?” Cassandra asked. “It’s your tail. Why didn’t it help to save you and make you as unstoppable as you say it does for an alpha?”
“That’s just not the way it works,” Samar answered thoughtfully. “Did you know that Kitsune are considered to be tricksters? Perhaps that is the greatest trick of all, that in order for us to be the most powerful, we must give up the power of our lives.”
“It doesn’t sound like a good trick to me,” Cassandra frowned. “It sounds like a cruelty.”
“Will you help me?” Samar asked. Her eyes begged Cassandra to grant her this last wish.
Cassandra sighed with reluctance and then conceded.
“Fine,” she said. “But I do this for you, not for anyone else. I do it because it is your dying wish. It is a great burden to be the last of one’s kind, and you deserve every honor that I can give to you.”
She leaned forward and gave Samar a hug. Then Cassandra went to get Rubius to help her carry Samar into the woods. The three of them would go alone, without telling any of the others. Samar planned to end her life in one last, glorious burst of magic in her shifted form, while Cassandra held onto her tail. Then, it would be over, and Samar’s tail would contain all of the magic that her life was made out of. Cassandra would give it to Aeron, and she would be prepared to deal with whatever wrath of fury and devastation of grief would follow. When Aeron came back to the castle, Samar would be gone, and for that, Cassandra felt guilty. She wished that she could at least give her husband the opportunity to say goodbye. But Samar insisted that there wasn’t time, and that she would visit him someday in his dreams to say goodbye to him there herself.
As Rubius carried Samar’s fragile body through the secret corridors beneath the castle that led out to the forest, Cassandra noticed the light in Samar’s eyes start to dim and weaken. She reached over to hold her hand as she walked beside Rubius.
“We need to hurry,” Cassandra told him as they quickened their pace.
When they arrived in the clearing of the forest, Rubius gently set Samar down on her feet. She shifted one last time into the form of her beautiful chestnut fox with all of her tails softly curling down by her feet. She tipped her muzzle up into the air for one final deep, fresh breath, and then her black fox eyes looked at Cassandra.
“I’m ready,” Cassandra said as she carefully held lightly onto one of Samar’s tails. “Goodbye, my friend.”
In a single brilliant flash, Samar was gone. All that was left of her were the silent shed tears of her loss streaming down Cassandra’s face, and Samar’s beautiful tail in her hand.
Chapter Fifteen
When Aeron returned to the castle, Cassandra knew there was no way around it; she had to tell him what happened to Samar. He was already in an agitated mood since he had found no inkling of hope toward a cure, but when he found out that she had sacrificed herself in order to save them all, Aeron flew into a fit of rage.
Cassandra tried to explain to him that there was no way to have saved her and that Samar was dying anyway. She told him that Samar wanted Aeron to focus on defeating the upcoming threat and protecting his family and his people. She urged him to see that Samar knew he couldn’t do that if she was still hanging on to life because he would be too distracted and that she loved him and had grown to love their entire family. Samar needed him to successfully stop the war and live on for her.
But Aeron was beyond furious. He was enraged that they hadn’t tried to stop Samar, and even more outraged that none of them had come to get him before she died so that he could at least say goodbye. That was what hurt Cassandra the most, and she knew that it would. She felt guilty about that too, even though Samar had told her not to.
“You should have told me what she was planning to do!” Aeron howled at Cassandra. He swept his hand over the table and knocked all of the glassware to the ground in a shattering crash.
“Calm down, Aeron,” Rubius said as he pulled Cassandra closer to him so that she didn’t get hurt by her husband’s tantrum.
“Calm down?” Aeron growled at him. “Don’t tell me what to do, Rubius.”
Cassandra was on the verge of tears, not because of Aeron’s temper, or because she was scared of what he would do, but because she hurt for him. She knew how much pain he was going through; she could see it flaring in his wild eyes. Aeron turned to Rubius with a rage-filled expression.
“Go tell the packs to prepare for the second war,” he said.
“Prepare how?” Rubius asked him. “We don’t even know when the second war is going to be.”
“It will be at sunrise. We will attack their kingdom head-on.”
“That’s a crazy idea and a reckless plan,” Rubius warned. “Just because you now have a death wish and are lashing out with rash plans for a hasty battle does not mean that I will go tell the packs to follow you blindly into it.”
“Rubius,” Cassandra said as she tried to get him to back down and not escalate the conflict with her husband.
Theo heard the commotion and came into the argument as well.
“I’m with Rubius on this one. I’m sorry, Father, but it’s not a good strategy, and you know it.”
Aeron glared at them with a look of dominant fury.
“I am your alpha and your king,” he snarled. “You will obey me whether you want to or not. Now go tell the packs to prepare for war in the morning. Now.”
Both Rubius and Theo knew that Aeron was leading them toward destruction. They might have been able to refuse him as king and suffer the consequences, but they had no choice but to follow his directives as alpha. Even if they had wanted to disobey him, they couldn’t. The alpha bond within the pack was strong enough to force their compliance, even unwillingly so.
