Stuck between the Royal Wolves

RAYAI had been watching the house for a while when the boom of thunder echoed over the dark rims of the overcast sky.“Shit,” I swore under my breath, hefting the rucksack of groceries from the flea market higher over my shoulder and jerking the leather hood of my father’s old trench coat over my face.I must not have been quick enough, because the whoosh of wind whipping back the hood as I darted across the garbage-strewn streets on my tiptoes had me letting out an embarrassing scream.I clamped a hand over my mouth, my eyes wide as I glanced at the house again, feeling for all the world like I had sung a bad rendition of donkey kong.Had he heard me? Images of the stout beefcake of a man and the imposing deep V of his eyebrows flashed before my eyes as I fiddled with the back door lock on the cottage house as the patter of rain pounded noisily behind me.My heart beat a frantic rhythm in my chest when I realized the tapping noise I’d heard earlier was the sound of footsteps. Someon

RAYA BANKS“No! Wait!” I gasped, feeling my hands shoot out to reach for the man a split second before the iron clasp of his royal guards jerked me back, the metal pound of iron clashing on my head and sending me into the darkness at breakneck speed. The sound of voices drifting from the spaces in the wood door when I came to was almost deafening.Where was I? I cracked an eye open, fighting the darkness that was pressing down heavily on my eyelids when I caught the tall shadow of a man standing over me, the wolf of his scent so overpowering it couldn’t have been anything but royal blood.“Y-your majesty,” I rasped, struggling to my knees and managing to look up at the man, the glint of his claws half-hidden in his tunic cuff catching my eye and I gulped reflexively.“You disappoint me, Banks, I could have taken you as mistress you know? Put you on your good little throne beside mine in the throne room dias. This futile struggling, it is...appalling.” He hissed and I gritted my teeth

RAYAIt had always been the same, my nightmares of the woman in the red hood with claws for hands and her bloodied fangs extended dangerously from her twig-thin lips.My mother had never said anything to me when she chased me through the fog, the crimson of her cape bleeding in and out of view until my breathing seized in my throat and I snapped awake.Again and Again, night after night up until today, when I felt the thud of my heart pounding into the soft cushion of a comforter I felt under my back as her words rang in my mind’s ear.“Run,” The woman had whispered when she’d suddenly burst through the fog to grip me with burning hands, her hot breath scalding my face.My mouth fell open as I peered into the empty sockets where her eyes should have been, before I felt the weight of my body shoot up, gasping and twisting awake as a chill clawed at the seat of my spine.“Are you alright miss?” A disembodied voice boomed so close to my ear that I let out a banshee scream, throwing my ha

RAYA BANKSI shifted my weight on the soft comforter of the bed uneasily. The longer the maid girl stood at the threshold of the silver-lined room, the more I struggled to clamp down on the urge to bite into my finger beds, the stretch of silence hanging like a maiden’s tits in the space between us.”Judith was it?” I croaked, managing to clear out the rubbish at the last syllable and affecting a measly charge of authority in the time it took the girl to look up and nod dutifully, staring at me through the heavily-lashed rims of her soulful eyes.I shifted again, glancing around the richly-dressed space and feeling like a brown-nosed donkey in a wedding dress as the unease settled like lead in my belly.“I’ll draw you a bath Miss, it’s almost time for dinner,” Judith voiced suddenly, startling me into what felt like a disembodied nod, grateful when she disappeared into the washroom and left me alone with my thoughts.Had Nikolai filed that under her list of duties as well? The though

NIKOLAIMy feet hit the ground almost noiselessly as I bounded toward the gates, feeling the dense calcium of my bones snap and twist as I shifted into my wolf mid-air, leaping up to the fire-lit cubicle of the Keep’s guard stations.“Y-Your Highness-” One of the hollow-cheeked keep guards exclaimed, lowering the spear gun he had spun to face me and adjusting the oversized helmet on his bald head with brown-rimmed claws.“Status report Baldy,” I growled, feeling the pool of drool gather on the sides of my law as I peered down the steep wall to see the large beige-furred wolf that was writhing and groaning outside the castle gates.I felt my brows furrow with concern as the guard launched a long spiel about how the soldiers had to trap the wolf in silver-wrought chains to keep it from biting off any more of the guards heads.I could tell it was agitated, throwing the triangle of it's head this way and that with deep, sorrowful groans as the silver bit into it's fur, leaving angry red w