Shadow Queen Novels & Stories

—THE BLOOD QUEEN’S ARRIVAL Far north, beyond the Ice Barrens, the Blood Queen stood atop a frozen cliff. She was surrounded by dark wolves—massive, silent, loyal only to her bloodline. A priestess knelt beside her. “The Sovereign has awakened.” The Blood Queen smiled, baring her fangs. “Let her shine.” “The brighter her light, the darker her fall.” She lifted a blade carved from moonstone and dipped it into a basin of Ava’s vision-fire. “I will be her shadow.”

As if waiting for her choice. Sera’s chains cut deeper, shadow bleeding into her veins. She screamed once more, and her power burst outward, a shockwave ripping through the courtyard. Adrien was thrown back, the frostbound slammed against the wall, the molten figure staggered with a snarl. Her shadow didn’t just spread, it rose. Figures clawed out of it, more than ever before, kneeling, bowing, whispering with one voice: “QUEEN.” The molten one grinned, triumphant. “Yes. Yes. Finally.”

He removed my hood and placed the tiara from its box on my head. “I hereby declare Ava Withers to be the Queen Luna of Black Shadow Pack, governess of all packs within the Black Shadow Pack boundary, mate of King Leo Warrick, and protector of all.” It was a mouthful, but I wasn’t arguing. I stood, and the procession made its way onto the stage, one person at a time. They each kneeled and kissed my foot, then offered me blessings.

“I am Queen Nerissa, lawfully crowned. I am the mother of Princess Elira—the primary heir and future queen. And if you dare to announce the status of a queen consort without my signature—” I stopped. Let the threat breathe. “That is treason against royal code.” I turned toward the doorway. My Lycan form slowly receded. The fine white fur withdrew beneath my skin, my fangs shortening, but my eyes remained sharp. “I do not reject the presence of a Shadow Wolf,” I said without looking back. “I reject manipulation. If you intend to play politics with a woman’s womb, you had best be prepared to face a queen who is also a mother.”

He was staring at me with an obsession that bordered on madness. "I am not a coin for your hoard, lizard," I said, my voice dripping with the cold, unyielding weight of the Deep Void. "I am the Shadow Queen. And if you ever look at me like that again, I won't just freeze your fire. I will erase your existence."

"She's been here six weeks and she's already the person my soldiers ask about first when they wake up shot. You know what that is, right? That's not a liability, big brother. That's a queen." I didn't answer. But something eased in my chest, one degree, and I sat the long watch out with my back to the wall and my gun across my knees and my brother breathing steady on the other side of a door my woman had locked with her own hand, and somewhere south of Atlanta, driving hard toward a sunrise he thought was going to save him, Isaiah Crowe did not yet know that he'd been given exactly one night, and that the King who'd let him have it was already sitting in the dark counting down the hours unti

A small smile spread on my face amidst my pain. "Anybody that challenges her and loses is not fit to live" Thane growled out. I heard her scream and turned just in time to see him rip out her heart. He tossed her lifeless body and her heart away and marched towards me. He lifted me into his arms. "All Hail The Queen" a voice shouted. "All Hail The Queen" the crowd chorused. I shut my eyes in exhaustion and he blurred us out of the field and into the castle.

She asked, impatient as she waited for him to elaborate. "Bruce a-and Layla Kingston. They're the leaders of t-the Panthers, The American m-mafia." She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Unfortunately, I don't have a clue of who they are." The woman grabbed another knife from the table and slashed multiple cuts on his chest, red blood oozing down his torso freely. Bella went around him and carved a heart on his bare back. It was her symbol; a signature, you could say. Each of her victims, alive or not, bared the symbol on their skin.

The vault seemed to hold its breath. Then the black pool convulsed violently, and from its center rose a shape unlike the others. Not Mia’s reflection, nor any of theirs, but something vast and terrible. A towering figure of shadow, its form shifting and indistinct, crowned with jagged spikes of violet crystal. Its eyes burned with malice, and its voice shook the cavern. “You dare claim mastery over yourself?” it roared. “Then face the truth: you are nothing without me. I am the Queen’s shadow, the heart of her will. And I will devour you whole!”