Claiming Their Queen

Chapter One

As a little girl, I always dreamed my best friend and future Beta, Tatum, would be my mate.

Then, two short years before I turned eighteen, he was sent away for his training to become my Beta. A training that would last eight long years. I couldn't help but be angered over this rule. No other Betas were forced to train this long, only mine, and only because of who I am and how powerful my family is.

Before he left, I never had the courage to tell him I had hoped he would be my king, a regret I carry daily.

Time went on, even with my regret. Finally, I turned eighteen, and my fathers and I left the kingdom searching for the person who held the other half of my soul. All the while, I still had hopes that it would be Tatum.

I silently fought for us for years.

"I wish I could tell you this is the last one, Ivy. But we both know it isn't. We all have tried to reason with the elders about this mating thing. Until we make a breakthrough, just fight for yourself out there while we fight at your back." I nodded at my mother's words and slipped my feet into the heels that matched my black gown perfectly.

This will be the sixth mating ball held here and will only be the last if my mate attends or I take a chosen mate before midnight. Tonight will also mark the eighth year that Tatum has been gone. This mating ball doubles as a welcoming party because tonight he returns, and with his return, I can only hope this fiasco will be over and that I will have my king's mark by dawn.

Six years from my eighteenth birthday and six mating balls later, the elders had been convinced my person had met their demise or had made their own choice.

I don't believe it. It doesn't sit right in my spirit. I still think my fated returns tonight.

"Thank you all for attending tonight. I see new faces and returning ones. Please eat, dance, and be merry as we welcome the return of Clearwater's future Beta." My father, Cassius, could be heard throughout the castle walls as he made the same speech as every other year, adding with it this time the welcoming for Tatum.

With my cue, I ascended the long staircase on my mother's arm. She worked to steady my shaking hands from the nerves rattling my bones—nerves caused by not knowing if he would show but knowing with certainty that he wasn't here yet.

I took my spot on the throne, unwilling to mingle with the unmated shifters in the crowd like the elders asked me to. Over my six years of sitting here, I have seen more than one hundred people find their mates on the ballroom floor. I will not be the one who steps in between something so good, so right. It isn't natural to make a choice; it goes against our creation. Yet, the elders expect it of me.

"Princess, I would like to introduce you to someone." Elder Merd's voice came clearly to my left despite his drunken slur.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes at seeing his white robe enter my peripheral vision.

I plastered a smile on my face, which fell quickly at the sight of smiling autumn eyes and brown shaggy hair. I straightened my spine as the smile I had dropped so promptly crossed my lips more naturally this time.

"Alpha Grimm," He bowed courteously. His use of my informal title made meeting him easier. I was never one to prefer my royal crown over the formal pack title of Alpha. I had taken my role seriously my entire life, and despite not having a mate, I had learned how to run my kingdom with an iron fist.

"This is Nolan." Merd's long white beard danced with his words.

"It's a pleasure, Nolan." I stood, taking his hand firmly. The taste of his name on my tongue was like sweet cherries.

"The pleasure is all mine." He grinned a boyish smile that made my heart jump.

Merd had walked away with the introductions being made, and a small part of me was thankful he did. Not because I was interested in Nolan romantically but because Merd's intentions were impure.

"Would you take a walk with me? It is slightly crowded in here for my liking." Nolan asked, offering me his hand.

I took it.

I took his hand, and I still don't recall deciding to do so. I just did it. Just took this warm stranger's hand as naturally as taking a breath.

The whole night, it had felt like I had been stuffed into a box to watch a slaughter, and this handsome man had offered me an out I couldn't refuse.

"Of course." I heard myself say.

He led me into the garden. We grabbed flutes of champagne on the way and talked of his life and mine. We discussed our achievements and mistakes and the lessons we had learned from them along the way, and I admit talking with Nolan felt natural. Still, it didn't pack that punch I recognized so freely in my parents and grandparents, who had found their fated mates long ago.

My family had found their fate, and so should Nolan and I.

"Do you travel for these things often?" I almost wanted to catch him in something. My hopes were too high that he would admit to traveling for mating balls, having s*x with multiple women, and then returning home to a life with someone somewhere else. But he didn't. Instead, he opened my eyes to why Merd had been keen on our meeting.

"No. I have been to two since I lost my mate three years ago." His eyes softened at the mention of her, at the piece of him I had uncovered.

"I'm sorry. I didn't—How did…" My words fell short of finishing the tricky question, which I was too curious to know the answer to.

"She was killed in a rogue attack, and you don't have to apologize. The moon goddess spared me from going feral, and my Caty would have wanted me to be happy and live as fully as possible." His loving response only managed to cement my decision. While Merd would be pissed, this is for the best.

"Did Merd send you to me as a chosen?" I asked softly. I looked him in the eyes. I needed to see if there was a spark there, something that would lead me to believe he was as impure as Merd's intentions... but I couldn't find it.

"While I wouldn't be opposed, and he did hope to slip me in on you, I am here to begin a new job tomorrow." A grin spread wide on his face, his dimples only adding to that boyish charm.

"Goddess." I chirped. Covering my face as the flush of red claimed my cheeks.

"Don't worry, Alpha. Everything will work out." When his fingers slipped into mine, it was a lovely warmth. But this warmth doesn't tip the incredible sensations that are said to be brought on by a fated.

The sounds of two lovers entering the darkness for hidden kisses stole our attention.

My face flushed darker at the woman's soft moans, and I could tell Nolan felt just as uncomfortable. I cleared my throat, catching the attention of the man swallowing those soft moans. Before he turned, his delicious scent hit me. The smell of my mate. Then, as his familiar honey eyes met mine, I knew it was my mate. My skin vibrated, and my heart thrummed in joy.

Tatum, my Beta, my mate, had returned. He had grown into a bruting man, chiseled from head to toe, just as handsome as I remembered. But something had changed.

Now, he wore the mark of another. He had already made his choice. His mark sat proudly on her neck and his on hers. Her blonde hair fell in waves around her shoulders, and her red dress cupped her swollen stomach, perfectly accentuating her swollen womb.

She was pregnant…

The saddened look in his eyes told me he knew what I had been to him and what must happen now. He cleared his throat and whispered in his mate's ear, and the two walked over to me with saddened expressions.

"Ivy, I—" I held my hand up. I didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to listen to his excuses of how madly in love they were, reasons that were used to cover how I wasn't worth waiting for the way I had him.

"I'm ready, beta," I said, straightening my spine. His eyes widened just before that shock faded, and the reality of his decisions sat clear between us.

D.a.m.n, right. He had to say it. I wanted to hear him say it. I had to hear it from him first.

"I, Beta Tatum Kensington of the Clearwater pack, reject you, Princess Ivy Grimm of the Clearwater pack, as my mate and luna." I fell to my knees at his heartbroken tone, biting my tongue to keep from crying out in pain and grief. Nolan's warm hand wrapped tight around my arm as Tatum stepped forward to help me stand. Tatum's mark kept him from feeling the hurt I was, and now that our rejection had taken place, their bonds were whole… complete. Two things I would never feel now.

"I have it, Beta. You can go now." I couldn't tell who growled. I had barely heard Nolan's voice demanding that the two leave us.

He finally got me to my feet, stabilizing me.

"Oh, Ivy. I'm so sorry. I don't know he could be so igno—" I fell into him, sobbing before he could finish his sentence.

He held me as I cried to our Goddess, begging her for relief from this pain in my chest.

Nolan took me into the woods. He leaned me on a weeping willow that stood proudly on the outskirts of the water.

"I need my mother. Please, Nolan. Please get my mother!" I sobbed, begging Nolan to get the one person my feet couldn't reach. The water's reflection bounced off his handsome face. He looked like a warrior god with his ticking jaw and flexing muscles. He nodded, running off into the darkness he had just led me through.

My tears fell to Mother Earth, soaking her in my heartache. I don't recall how long I lay there. It couldn't have been long. My mother would have been here by now. But it felt like an eternity had passed already.

"Cry not for him, princess." A darkness enveloped me, a smokey cloud of black swallowing me whole.

My pulse was racing as I fought to see the full moon's light, or maybe it was racing from the gruff voice that had just growled out to me.

A vast, shadowed figure stood in the darkness, his silhouette the only thing I could make out.

"Who are you?" I tried to get to my feet but stumbled on my gown, hitting the ground, cutting my knee on a stone beneath me, soaking the earth beneath me in blood as my tears had.

"Whoever you want me to be, princess." The shadow's husky voice vibrated the darkness, chilling my skin like ice.

"Ivy, Ivy!!" I could hear my mother yelling throughout the courtyard. Her voice broke through the darkness that had enveloped me.

"Mom?" I asked, finally seeing her shuffling down the stones with her heels in hand.

"Come here, baby. Mommy is here." She scooped me up with the help of Nolan and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. Her eyes glazed over as we made our way back up the hill.

"I know this isn't the time, but the elders have learned of your rejection." She rumbled. "They're meeting with your fathers, and they are about to rip out the throats of every elder up there. We have to hurry, Ivy."

Knowing that just minutes after my rejection, they had already started their nonsense infuriated me. Could I not have one night of peace?

We ran swiftly through the castle, up the stairs, skipping the elevator in hopes of getting there faster. As we approached the office doors, a roaring argument could be heard from the hall. Merd swore to the Goddess that he had solved the problem, but the rest of them only fought his slurring thoughts.

I shoved the doors open, and my chest heaved with anger in my veins. I can't have a minute's peace for these old a.s.s hats, and I am more than sick of it.

"How dare you hold a meeting without me, especially one that clearly concerns me!" I roared, forcing my feet to carry me steadily before them with my aura encasing the room.

"Don't be so disrespectful." Barth snarled. A challenge I happily accepted.

"Don't spit on the child, Bartholomew! She has had a terrible night!" A clearly drunken Merd slurred, patting me on the shoulder as if I were not the future queen and deserved to be treated as such.

"Hear me clearly when I say you should enjoy your spot on the elder council while it lasts because there will no longer be one when I take the throne." I closed the space between Barth and I. He may be an elder, but I am everything else, and it is out of our kindness that the elders exist still.

Barth didn't take long to think about what I had said before he spoke again.

"The games begin next week. Prepare your daughter for what comes next." With his response, he disappeared in thin air.

"What games?" I asked, turning to my fathers. The other council members followed Barth's lead and evaporated into thin air as if they hadn't just caused massive upheaval in my life.

"The Royal Games." My father, Cassius, decided to answer since all my father Knox could do was to seethe in anger.

"What are the royal games?" I asked as my heart began to race.

"The Royal Games are a series of competitions created to have two men standing at the end. At that time, they will fight to the death, and the winner—" My father stopped. His eyes searched mine for what I had no clue. But I know he looked desperate.

"The winner gets your hand whether you want him or not." My father Knox spat, standing with waves of death rolling off his tense shoulders.

"Excuse me?" My mother and I both swore.

I paced the length of the office, digging through my mind for any way out of this. I had muted everything around me, and even as my parents tried to cool my rage, I was boiling in it.

"I'm going to kill that d.a.m.n beta." My father Knox growled.

"No matter, I will fight for my own hand. Now that I know I have no mate, I will not be forced to choose one." I had decided this was my only out, and nothing could talk me out of it.

"Is that legal?" my mother asked my fathers.

Before they could answer, I answered for them.

"Anything I proclaim becomes legal law, with or without the elder's advisement." One father spent time educating me in kingdom law, and the other spent time educating me in physical combat.

In contrast, my mother and grandmother educated me in feeding and using my magic. I am a force to be reckoned with any way they want to go about it, and for my freedom to choose my mate or spend my life alone, I would play those games like a wild animal forced into a corner and win.

"She's right." My father nodded to her as I left.

I stormed out of the office and into my room.

A hot shower later, I was rolled up in bed with thoughts of my rejection in my head. Tatum's words only played for seconds before the chill of the smokey darkness made me shiver again. There was no mistaking that electrifying feeling that made every hair on my arms stand tall.

"Tell me your name, creature." I tried to sit upright in bed but was pinned by the weight of the being. I heard it inhaling slowly, followed by a guttural growl that made my thighs clench. Had it just sniffed me?... Did I... Did I like it sniffing me?

"You'll learn my name soon enough, princess." It rumbled into my ear before stealing my lips in a kiss. My first kiss... A kiss I relaxed into, welcomed even. The taste of mint and alcohol filled my nose as its tongue danced playfully on mine.

"Good night, little one. I'll be seeing you again soon." that voice, sounding utterly inhuman, raised the hair on my arms that had relaxed at the taste of his tongue.

I wanted to ask it to stay. I know that's crazy, but it made the pain in my chest disappear. But before I could part my kiss-swollen lips and beg it to stay, the weight on my body lifted, taking with it my consciousness.