"Bring her in!" The King commanded, his booming voice echoing off the stone walls of the castle.
From the end of the room, the large and heavy wooden doors swung open to reveal two guards clad in royal uniforms with a pitiful she-wolf between them. She was quite the sight, with her matted hair, torn rags for clothes, sunken-in cheeks, sallow skin and eerie red eyes. It was her eyes that, if nothing else, would be her undoing -- the red being a tell-tale sign that she was a rogue.
Rogues were the wolves who either chose to leave, or were forcefully thrown from their packs. While one could turn to a life of living in a small make-shift pack of other lone wolves to maintain sanity, rogues were often lunatics who did not play well with others. They would attack unprovoked, were unable to work with others, and most abhorrently, they were not above cannibalism to survive.
The guards easily dragged the rogue she-wolf forward, depositing her on the floor in front of the King and and his mate. The rogue put up no fight, and sat where she was dropped; her piercing red eyes never moving from the face of the Queen.
"How did you get through our borders undetected?" The King demanded angrily.
The rogue continued to stare at the Queen, remaining silent. This only served to anger the King, who raised his voice further.
"I demand an answer, rogue! Do not think I am above torture when it comes to the safety of my people!" He bellowed.
Not taking her eyes off of the rogue, the Queen reached over to her husband's hand and laced her fingers with his. Just the simple act of touching her mate was enough to calm his angry heartbeat. Not only did she abhor torture, she didn't believe that it would make this unusual woman speak. She got the feeling that the woman was there for her, and for no other purpose.
"What is it you came to tell us?" The Queen asked, deciding to follow her hunch.
The rogue smiled at the Queen's question, revealing beautiful white teeth that were juxtaposed against her rough exterior.
"This is why you will bring about his end..." the she-wolf muttered.
"Pardon me?" The Queen demanded, frowning.
Surprising the guards, who assumed that she was malnourished and frail, the rogue suddenly jumped to her feet and pointed a bony index finger towards the Queen. "It has been foretold" she said, cackling. "You will bring about the King's ruin! You are a curse, a plague on our kind!" She screeched, spitting on the floor to emphasize her disgust.
"Foretold by whom?!" The Queen demanded, raising to her feet before her husband charged at the disrespectful wench before them. "The Oracle has died, and so too have all of her kin."
"The Oracle has passed, yes...And when the Oracle passes, her gift does, too!" The rogue cried, finally turning her piercing eyes to the King. "And it passed to me! I am the Oracle! This is how I was able to see when and where to pass to enter the pack lands undetected" she explained, a strange smile on her face.
The King frowned, not sure what to make of such a statement, nor the she-wolf's behaviour. The Oracle's bloodline was believed to have been wiped out in a slaughter that rocked not just all of werewolf kind; but, witches too. The Oracle's pack had been the only wolf pack in existence to live peacefully with a witch coven, and they had all been massacred. To believe that there had been a survivor...Was it really such a stretch? There was no way to be certain that this she-wolf was not a true survivor. Additionally, it was true that the gift could only pass to those of the Oracle's pack, and there weren't many alternative explanations for how she could have breached the royal defenses undetected.
Seeing that her husband was considering what the supposed-Oracle was saying, the Queen held her tongue despite wanting to ask more. What did this she-wolf mean? How could the Queen bring about the ruin of her own mate? It was true that her husband would give his life to protect her; but, that's not the message the Queen was taking away.
"It seems unwise to act rashly on this...What do you think, my love?" The King asked his Queen through their telepathic mind-link, interrupting her thoughts. All werewolves could mind-link their pack members, as well as their mates -- an ability that was imperative for communication when they were in wolf form.
"Perhaps we take her in...And question her. If she is being truthful, we will learn soon enough. And if she is lying...We still need her to determine how she was able to enter the lands. I suggest we welcome her in; but, keep her guarded day and night" the Queen replied calmly through their link.
The King nodded at his mate's wise words, about to speak before the rogue cut him off.
"The males of the Royal family are unfortunate souls" the Oracle said, shaking her head with mock sympathy. "Not only will the King fall at the hands of his Queen...Your son, Prince Darius, will be killed by his mate, too! Heed my words...Banish the Queen, and behead the Prince's mate the moment she is found! If you don't, the werewolf race will fall!" She screeched dramatically.
"Guards! Take this woman to the dungeon!" The King ordered angrily, unable to contain his wrath any longer. How dare this she-wolf waltz into his kingdom, and tell him to banish his one and only soul mate? The other half of not just his soul, but his wolf's soul -- his perfect match in every way, picked for him by the Moon Goddess Selene. It was utterly ridiculous!
"Be cautious, my love...We cannot be certain she is an imposter. And it seems our own pack may be thinking the same thing" the Queen cautioned the King gently, reaching for his hand.
The touch of his mate soothed his anger once more; however, he couldn't deny the truth of her words. She was not looking at him while mind-linking him, and was instead looking at the faces of the others in the room. Upon inspection, the King was disheartened to see that some of those faces were giving their Queen uneasy, or outright apprehensive looks. He felt his fury building once more, but the gentle squeeze that his mate gave his hand pulled his thoughts back to her.
He looked at her, and found she was watching him now. She had a soft, comforting smile on her face, and held nothing but adoration for her mate in her eyes. How could anyone believe that this woman would be his undoing?
No. He vowed then and there...He would protect her from the entire kingdom if he had to! The Queen would not be banished, prophecies be damned!
YOU ARE READING
Veritas
WerewolfBook 1 of 2 Aislinn Jones has had a unique problem for as long as she can remember: her dreams. They are vivid and haunting, and plague her whenever she tries to rest. Her father's solution was to train her to a point of exhaustion where she was pas...
