FIGHT BY HEATHER YOUNG-NICHOLS
The queen is dead.
She died suddenly and no one seems to know how it happened. One minute she was there and the next she was dead.
Our pack works differently. We’re the only ones of our kind that refer to their alpha as queen. We’re also the only pack that has a female alpha. The downside is that having a female lead makes us the target of other packs. They see women as unfit to lead yet not one of them has beaten us yet.
With the queen dead, the trial must commence in thirty days. That gives the first born daughters from each family thirty days to train. It doesn’t matter if any of us want to be queen or compete. It’s required.
And we only have thirty days to learn how not to die.
Each competitor is assigned a trainer. We don’t get to choose but I’m hoping for my brother. He’s a fantastic fighter and he’s the one that’s been preparing me my whole life. Except my brother is sent on a scouting mission and won’t be training this crop. Though he trained the previous queen, whatever he’s doing is deemed more important.
Instead I’m stuck with Axel, a shifter who’d rather choke on gravel that train me. He doesn’t have a choice and neither do. I might not want to be Queen but I really don’t want to die.
That means hours on end with the boy who hates me.
We train and argue while I count down the days until I’m rid of him.
But when that day comes, neither of us are ready to say goodbye.
ASCEND
After winning the contest, I now have to lead.
Everyone wants to have their say in how I should do that. There’s only one person who is there to support me, with no ulterior motive.
Axel.
He’s by my side, helping me set up my advisors, which he’s one of them, and make the transition. When another pack declares war on their inexperienced Queen, Axel is there to help me strategize.
I want to avoid war but will protect my pack no matter the cost.
It’s hard being queen while figuring things out with Axel. I’ve never been in love before but I definitely am with him.
We have another rule. No one can ask the queen to marry. It must be the Queen’s choice. I want him but taking that kind of step is quite the commitment. Another edict from long ago is that when the queen marries, it’s forever.
The longer he helps me the more I know he’s the one I want to be with forever.
Until the morning of our wedding when I get new information.
Axel, the person I thought was with me for me actually has ulterior motives. It looks like he’s not with me for me but for what this means for his family’s problems.
I can’t marry him and now, I’m not sure I want him to remain in the pack.
RULE
Wearing the crown is hard. Even if it’s a metaphorical one.
Now that I’m the one making the hard calls, it’s hard to put my personal feelings aside. There’s too much going on when our fighters are dealing with the other pack, my best friend and I are trying to figure out what Axel’s motives are.
He says the sweetest things in one breath, then using his sharp tongue in the next. Deep down, though I think his feelings for me are real. But he also used me or my position.
It’s all too much. I’m a brand new queen trying to find her way in this position that I never wanted. Someone is trying to kill me like they did the last queen and I’m trying to figure out if Axel really was just using me all along.
There’s someone in our pack that needs to be eliminated before all hell breaks loose but our fighters aren’t even here. This is something I have to handle myself. With my best friend’s help, we begin working on all the mysteries surrounding me taking the throne and the previous queen.
Together we are able to find the last queen’s killer, saving my life and removing the danger within the walls of the compound.
Once we put all the pieces together, it turns out that Axel being with me was never about paying off his family debts. It was always about his feelings for me and now I need to get to the fight to make sure he comes home alive.
