Little Red (Not Quite the Fairy Tale #5) (4 page)

Chapter Five

Mistake

She’d expected that he’d give them a couple of larger rooms where they could all bunk together, or something; instead, each family was shown to one of their large, luxurious royal guest suites. She’d be eternally grateful for that, although his hospitality had been given reluctantly, she’d heard it in his voice.

If it hadn’t been for the kids, she would have turned it down in a heartbeat, but regardless of the depth of her purse, she couldn’t very well have knocked at a hotel’s door and checked in that crowd without a booking, on such short notice.

Thankfully, the palace was pretty damn huge, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to fit the two hundred and seven wolves in her pack.

Her pack. Her couple of hundred wolves. It was still outright overwhelming, and humbling, too.

Forcing herself to look professional, she held her shoulders back and walked into the drawing room where she’d been ask to present herself after settling in her rooms.

Chase was nowhere to be seen, so she relaxed, for a while, in any case.

On a large, plush damask chair that could only be called a throne, sat a woman who held herself like the queen she doubtlessly was. She had Chase’s green eyes, and his imposing presence, too.

“Your highness.”

The woman seemed to analyze her; it was impossible to tell whether she approved or not.

Jaya, bless her soul, had stopped by her room and brought some of her clothes, as well as most of her gold, so she was wearing pants, at least.

“My grandson has either eaten some very interesting mushrooms, or you’re a she-wolf,” the woman stated.

So much for pants.

Lana shifted, destroying her trousers as her wolf burst out of her skin, and went right back to her human form.

The Queen raised an eyebrow; she was definitely related to Chase Hunter, because no fear or disgust could be read in her eyes. More interestingly, though, there was no surprise either.

“Hmm. Your children. They’ll be wolves, too?” the lady asked evenly.

Unsure of where that was going, Lana nodded; amongst those who left the pack, plenty had paired up with humans, and from what she’d heard through their social media interactions, the children had been Wilderlings, too.

“Hmm,” the Queen repeated noncommittally, before patting the chair at her right. “Sit down, child. I want to hear all about your plans. How do you like your tea?”

“With biscuits.”

The Queen chuckled and gave her a broad smile.

“Here. Have you tried Tarina’s chocolate chip cookies, by any chance?”

“Have I
ever.
These are just the best. How do they stay so chewie?”

“We’ll get along just fine.”

“And all this time, you’ve lived at our doorstep,” Chase heard Mimi muse as he joined her in her favorite study.

He stopped long enough to recognize the wolf’s voice.

She sounded sultry, but common rolled on her tongue as easily as her strange, sensual language.

“For three thousand years, yes,” she replied. “There are plenty of us living across the New World and Europa, too – Denker, mainly. That might be where we’re headed. We can hope to blend in, there... But thinking of it, we might go north.”

“You wouldn’t want to stay in your own country?”

Mimi sounded outraged; Lana replied casually, almost indifferently, without any edge to her voice: “We have no country. Most of us aren’t registered in your censuses; as far as the world is concerned, we don’t exist.”

Chase was done eavesdropping; he walked in, giving his two cents: “That’s quite enough of that. The world deserves to know what they can step into when they take a stroll through the wrong woods. They need to understand what kinds of monsters roam their lands.”

He felt quite entitled for thinking – and saying – that, given the circumstances, but seeing the look both women shot him, he felt very small all of a sudden. Mimi narrowed her eyes in warning; she’d never seemed so annoyed; as for the wolf… Lana looked like she’d been kicked in the guts, and he didn’t like it. He could not quite bring himself to regret his words, but he wished they hadn’t upset her.

“You may not make a habit of dismembering people, but others amongst your kind do,” he stated, matter-of-fact.

She nodded her agreement and looked away from him, making him feel even worse. He wanted her dark eyes back on him.

“There, there,” Mimi said softly, her hand on the woman’s knee. “It won’t be so bad. If elves can turn up and announce themselves without any issues, I don’t see why we’d reject wolves.”

“I never understood it either, before today,” she admitted. “Your grandson has a point: we’ll be mistrusted because wolves are hunters. We are threats. I shouldn’t have forgotten that.”

She turned to him, her eyes ablaze, yet cold as ice.

“Feel free to announce to the world what a menace my kind represents, but if you point a finger in my direction and endanger my pack, you’ll become
my
enemy, your highness. Trust me: you don’t want to find out what that means.”

Then, as regal as anyone in the room had ever been, she pushed on her feet and headed out. When she’d reached the door, she turned back to add: “We’ll be out of your hair by morning. Thanks for the hospitality.”

The latter part was addressed to Mimi, and said with a faint smile. Then, she was gone, without sparing him a glance.

And that, gentlemen, is how you utterly, completely fuck up.

None of what had occurred had been part of the plan. His idea had been going in, actually introducing himself, asking about the pack leader, and getting her opinion on the best way to get rid of him. He’d also wanted to thank her... and perhaps even ask her out. That was left to be determined. He was so confused, but in the midst of everything, the sole thing that hadn’t wavered was his inherent attraction towards her. If there was any way it could be reciprocated, he needed to know where it might lead.

Somehow, he ended up offending her instead of charming her.

Great.

Chase slept rather badly that night; by dawn, he was resolved: he had to apologize.

With some distance, he could see that what he said could be interpreted in various ways, including some that weren’t in his favor.

He’d generalized, throwing every wolf in one basket, and that probably bordered on racism.

Chase had met one horrible Wilderling, as well as ten cowards who hadn’t chosen to fight against him; but the same day, he’d met two hundred individuals who were just normal people – fur notwithstanding. The only thing he knew for certain about them was their strong sense of family; they had each other’s back, like no other community he’d ever heard of. Classifying them all under one umbrella had been stupid.

Hell, he’d actually said
monsters.
To Lana’s face. Frankly, he’d meant that the Alpha had been a monster, but he hadn’t exactly clarified that.

Chase wished someone could have punched some sense into him before he opened his big mouth.

When it became quite apparent that he wasn’t going to get anymore sleep, despite the godforsaken hour, he got up and started the day off by blowing some steam in the gym, punching a bag as hard as he could. First, he’d imagined it to be the cocky alpha, and he’d bruised his knuckles. Then, he visualized his own face, saying and repeating
“They need to understand what kinds of monsters roam their lands.”
He hit the thing so hard he broke his skin, and knocked the bag off its hook.

After wrapping his hands, Chase tried his luck at casually lingering in the corridors, hoping to bump into Lana like it was a coincidence, but the palace was quiet, eerily silent.

Around nine, he went up to Mimi’s drawing room; the women had seemed to get along, so he hoped Lana might popped by.

The Queen sent him an icy stare and looked away, returning to her knitting; never had he seen her wield her large, intimidating needles quite so fiercely.

“Grandmother,” he greeted her, trying to smile his way into his good grace.

“Chase.”

The reply was curt and cold. Oh, damn it to all hells, he’d really messed up this time. Mimi was
never
angry with him; not when he ignored the endless parade of legs she liked to submit him to, not when he’d come back dripping mud over her carpet, not even when he forgot to buy her chocolate and cakes.

Giving up on acting as though nothing had occurred, he confessed right away: “I’m going to apologize. I was out of line with our guest, Grandma.”

The thing was, Lana was female, therefore even if the fault had entirely lied with her, the only way to move forward was to say “ever so sorry, my bad.” Any man worth his salt knew and accepted that fact. As the fault was his, his apology ought to be sincere, and served accompanied with a bouquet of at least three different kinds of flowers. On such short notice, he’d had to forgo the peace offering, but he had he was quite happy to resort to bribery.

The Queen lifted her head, and while some of her anger seemed to fade, it was replaced by exasperation.

“Sit down, Chase.”

Here comes the
I am disappointed
speech. Chase would have preferred the prospect of facing another snarling wolf pack, but he obeyed.

“What do you know of the last Jereenan war?”

Surprised, unsure where that was going, he replied, “It lasted longer than expected; Jereena had to call to Alenia, and even then, months passed until they managed to beat back the rebels.”

“So, I take it you haven’t asked either of your friends for details.”

He nodded his agreement: he hadn’t. When it came into light that his friend and ally’s kingdom was under attack, he’d offered his help, on principle, and after Aiden had politely declined, Chase let it drop, concentrating on his own kingdom’s issues.

Enom wasn’t very well equipped for war; they had an army, of course, but if they were attacked, their main defense would come from their extensive alliances.

They built the best tools – both their firearms and blades were so artfully crafted most kingdoms had signed peace treaties just to ensure that they’d carry on selling to them – but there weren’t many soldiers retrospectively, considering they were a nation twice the size of Jereena.

They all knew that: Aiden had appreciated his generous offer of a few thousand soldiers he couldn’t spare, Chase had appreciate Aiden’s kind refusal.

“It wasn’t a civil war, Chase. No one advertised it, but they were attacked by Wilderlings. Five hundred Wilderlings, against over fifty five thousand men. Young Armand told me all about it,” she said, referring to the previous King of Jereena, Aiden’s father.

To her, he was “young Armand” because she’d seen him in diapers, a few decades back. The respectable King had been vocal in his protests, until he’d realized that she called anyone from the following generation “little.” Then, he’d wisely shut it, before finding himself demoted to little Armand. 

“More than five thousand men died, another ten were wounded so badly they had to be honorably discharged. Jereena may not have won, if little Dane hadn’t somehow managed to get rid of the leader of their enemy.”

Mind: blown.

He could see it, though. Humans were no match for those humongous wolves, that much had been apparent the previous day.

“It may be a very small society, but it’s a significant one. Making an enemy of not one, but two of their leaders, is a mistake I hope our kingdom will not pay for. We would not survive a war against the wolves.”

He’d woken up ashamed about his behavior, now he was also horrified by what he might have to pay for it.

“Do not fret, boy,” Mimi sighed. “Lana may not be overfond of you, but she likes me. Besides, she lacks the testosterone that accounts for most stupid decisions rulers generally make. We’ll not see her teeth and fangs clawing at our doorstep. Just try to think things through if you ever see her again, hmm?”

That made him pause.
If
he saw her again?