Chapter One Escaping The Royal Pack

The cabin I live in now is the one I have lived in since I was six years old. As I look back on my first day here, I don't remember much of what happened that day. As my aunt said, trauma often conceals memories that are too painful to bare, such as those that are from childhood.

As I recall, chaos reigned; wolves were rampaging at every turn. In my childhood, the memory of my mother—whose face now eludes me—dragging me to my aunt and uncle's house is vivid in my mind.

"Quickly, we must get the princess to safety!" she exclaimed. "Take her to the cottage concealed within the forest. Esther, should we fail to join you there by your arrival, presume us dead."

"I'm confused, sister, I can't bear the thought of leaving you behind! I wish you could come with me," pleaded Esther.

"Esther, it's clear why I must stay," her sister replied firmly. "I'm one of the finest warriors in our pack, just like you and your partner. And as my mate is also the King, we are the leaders—bound to our people. We can't simply abandon them. Right now, Ashina needs to survive, to fight another day. You must go to ensure her safety, to prevent her from being killed."

As I watched, my aunt collapsed to her knees, tightly grasping my mother's hands. Through her tears, she pleaded, "Please, my dear sister, come with me. We are twins, our hearts are linked—never have we been apart. I need you; how can I bear life, knowing you might suffer a terrible fate?"

From what I can recall, our escape led us through a series of grimy, shadow-shrouded tunnels. My aunt and uncle, flanked by several royal guards, engaged in a heated debate about the prohibition of magic use. They feared that an adept magic tracker could detect the unique essence of our spells and trace it right back to us, endangering our lives and mission.

As you can see, the tunnels were narrow, and they were built thousands of years ago. There was a lot of dust, and it was dark. I believe we would not have been able to see our way out of these tunnels if we weren't wolves.

Only the Royal family and the Royal guards knew about these tunnels. Getting from where we were living to where we are now has taken our group several weeks through the tunnels. It was our job to make sure anyone who was going to follow us was confused by what we were doing.

The scents we emitted could also be masked with the spray we had on hand. Among the escapees in our group were two shadow walkers, and four-royal warriors, and my aunt was a were/witch and her mate, but there were not that many of us.

There was also my baby brother who was only a couple of months old, as well as my nanny and her mate, who lived with us as well. There may be a reason why they were so concerned about me getting back later in my life to save the royal kingdom. Only people born with Alpha blood can inherit the throne, but for some strange reason, my brother was not born with Alpha blood. In light of the fact that both of our parents were Alphas, this didn't make sense to me.

As soon as we climbed up the mountain of a northern frosty mountain, we found the cabin built into the rocks of the mountain. It was the land of the winter dragons in this part of the world. My parents were friends with the King and Queen of the winter dragons, and they gave them this house to use as a retreat for their vacations during the winter months.

Under the cabin, some tunnels ran under the floor, and we entered the cabin through the basement. The front of the cabin looked small, but once you walked inside, you could see that it was indeed made to be a packhouse due to the size of the building. At the time, even though I was still considered a princess, my aunt was also considered a princess, and my brother was considered a prince.

Located on the 4th floor of this building, you will find the residences of the royal family. During the night, our nanny and her mate slept in separate rooms between my brother's room and my room. What I am saying is the whole fourth floor was for us royals. However, I no longer feel like a royal.

In the present day, my uncle disappeared going to find supplies, my aunt died of sorrow without her sister and her mate. My nanny and her mate were still with us, but she was more like a parent than a nanny. The guards are no longer four of them. There is only one warrior left. When a warrior leaves for the outside world where the packs reside to get supplies meant to help wolves, they never return.

The shadow walkers are the only ones that leave and return. They cannot be seen as they do hide in the shadows. They have both found their mates and have children, whom they are training to be shadow warriors.

They will not leave me because their sole purpose is to make certain that no harm comes to me. As far as I'm concerned, it's been too long since this happened, and the kingdom no longer exists. I have a great job in the Dragon Kingdom, where I have many responsibilities.

I have a few friends, and some of them indeed bullied me because I wasn't a dragon shifter. As a result of my inability to fly, I was unable to train for air combat. The fact that I was able to defeat any dragon in its dragon form in a hand-to-hand fight made me respected.

Over the past eleven years, it has been hard to believe that so much time has passed. In retrospect, it seems that it's been a long time since then. Apart from what my nanny and the shadow warriors teach him about werewolves, my little brother attends a dragon school and has a fairly good understanding of dragon behavior.

To honor my parents, who may or may not be dead, the dragon King and his queen trained me to fight and taught me how to be a monarch. I often ask myself, what is the point of all this training? It seems pointless. My parents have likely passed away, and the kingdom is overgrown with weeds.

Among the dragon princes, one is the future king of dragons, and he loves me romantically. Although he's cute, my nanny tells me I need to find my mate first. Once again, what is the point? My love for dragons has grown as a result of living among them. I now call this place my home. When I'm not at work or school, I spend my free time studying werewolves, hierarchies, and how to be a shadow warrior at home.

Essentially, my nanny and the warriors trained me like my parents would have trained me if I had lived in a pack. In my thirteenth year, I was guided through the process of shifting into my wolf. It was my nanny and Rector that helped me through the transition that year.

A dragon shifter must turn eighteen years old before they can find a mate. As of now, the eldest son of the Winter Kings is nineteen years old and visits me whenever he can. He has sapphire eyes and white hair like snow on his head, along with being tall with a broad muscular chest. His handsome appearance is not a detriment to his masculinity.

Sadly, my heart was broken as I remember the scene from a year ago. At that moment, I remember the pain just as if it had just happened. Walking upstairs, I reached the top floor. Earlier than expected, I met my dragon prince. My love for him had grown deep after I had tested out of high school and graduated early, and I thought I was in love with him. It was important to him that we took our relationship to the next level. As I had kept saying, I wasn't ready. How were we supposed to tell his parents if we had taken the relationship to another level? Even that frightened him. His parents looked at me as if I were their daughter.

My heart raced as I ran upstairs; he had surely captured my heart. I intended to strip off and run inside. Incredulously, my eyes sprang open when I saw what was in front of me. For all these years, I thought that he loved me as well.

My heart plunged deep into the caverns of my broken soul as I watched Cadma he was balls deep in a blonde dragoness. His pillow under him displayed only her hair, not her face. As he thrust inside the she-dragon, she matched his movements. Seeing them nearly finished with their moans, I stood there frozen, my heart breaking. He was visibly dripping sweat onto the pillow from his face. As he and the she-dragon approached a euphoric orgasm.

I shook myself out of my trance. Broken-hearted I turned and ran. They never knew I had been there. A couple of hours later, he strolled up to my home. I was sitting on the porch. I know he would wonder why I didn't come to his house.

I watched his beautiful white hair, which shone silver in the sunlight. I wanted to cry, yell, scream, and throw things. However, I cannot show weakness. I locked up my heart trying to replace it with ice like the land around me.

I continued to watch Cadma as his feet padded up the stairs and sat next to me on the wooden swing, which was held by metal chains from the porch ceiling. I turned to face him, he tried to grab my hand affectionately. I withdrew my hand out of his and with a stoic face I stated to him, "We need to talk; you have a true dragon mate that you will be in love with. I believe that we should quit playing around about being in any type of relationship. I have decided to save myself for my mate, and you should save yourself for your mate."

I looked up to see his expression at the last part of what I said. I saw him wince, and then cover his expression quickly.

He replies, "But I am in love with you, you would end us just like that." I could feel my heart break even more from his lies. How easily he says the word love. Like true love has no meaning. My heart was breaking, and I had to keep it together before it shattered into puzzle pieces that would be hard to put back together. Using a cold tone in my voice, "I don't love you! Please leave."

I got up from my seat and I turned around and walked back into my house. It was then that I started preparing to leave and find my destiny.

Cadma’s true dragon mate must be the woman he is in love with. As a result, even though he tries hard to see me, I avoid him now, even though he tries so hard. We can't take this any further since we have different paths in life to travel, and just thinking about leaving him breaks my heart, and I cry at night on my pillow as I think of him.

As I approach the age of eighteen, I am aware that the time will soon come when I must take my journey on my own to save my Kingdom and find the man who will be my future king. It is common for many of my friends to dream about becoming a princess and finding their true love. It is nothing more than waiting for my heart to be broken that makes it so painful.