The Gold Queen (Prequel)

***Mateo ***

I stare at the row of newborns sleeping comfortably in their cribs, a nurse checking my nephew’s vitals.

He was doing well for a baby born at half term, almost unheard of in the werewolf world. He would be a strong little boy, I had no doubt.

From the corner of my eye, Sofia paces back and forth along the hallway, stealing quick glances at me and looking away if I caught her watching me.

We had not discussed the things that happened before the poisoning and I could feel the turmoil within her. While she had said nothing of her attack, I knew she was frightened.

Just talk to her, Luis whines. She needs us right now. The rest is unimportant.

My stupid wolf was right. I made a promise to her the day I married her and I would not fail her now. Taking a deep breath, I turn on my heel to face her when a group of guards arrive.

“Your Majesty,” a guard bows. “We found the servant girl. She’s been locked in the dungeons but is refusing to speak to anyone but you and the Queen.”

I turn to Sofia, her eyes already locked on me. I could hear her heart start to race, an array of emotions swirling in her pools of honey.

I walk slowly up to her, taking her small hand in mine and bringing it up to my lips. Her eyes fill with tears as I k**s her hand, letting out a small breath in relief.

“Don’t be afraid, chaparrita,” I murmur, my lips brushing up against her hand. “I’ll be with you the entire time.”

“That’s not what I was afraid of,” she replies, her eyes cast to the ground in shame. “I-I’m sorry about-“

I crash my lips against hers, cupping her cheeks and pulling her closer to me so I could feel her heart pound within her chest. I pour my soul into this k**s, needing her to know I was not angry with her and that I could not breathe without her. Her hands slide past my shoulder and wrap around my neck as she responds to the k**s. Tears of relief stream down her cheeks and I smile against her lips.

“I’m sorry too, baby,” I whisper, wrapping an arm around her waist. “I’m sorry I walked away from you like that. I don’t know what I would have done had you…” I pause, not wanting to even contemplate the despair I would have found myself in had the witch been successful in her poisoning. I would have never forgiven myself for spending my last few moments with my mate in anger.

She pecks my lips, pulling me from my thoughts. “Then let’s go show this witch who she’s messing with, my King,” she smiles, slipping her hand in mine and interlocking our fingers.

—

A network of tunnels sit beneath the training grounds, the dark narrow passageways set up as a maze, with dead ends and never ending hallways, in case a prisoner escapes. This is where we kept rogues and pack members awaiting trial for their crimes. We also had a handful of vampires captured during battle here for questioning. Unfortunately for us, those half dead bastards were loyal to their Queen and had given us very little to go off of. It didn’t matter though, we’d make them sing a different tune soon enough.

As we approach the cell holding the witch, I give Sofia’s hand a comforting squeeze. The guards unlock the door and we find a young blonde female tied up in bronze chains. She was surprisingly younger than I expected and my wolf senses could not detect the witch within her. That frightened me. It meant witches had no distinguishable features to help identify them. A witch could literally walk right under our noses and we would never see it coming.

The girl’s l*p is split open and her hair is slightly disheveled, likely from when she was captured. Despite her appearance, however, she sat calmly in the center of the cell, a strong smile stretched across her lips.

Her brown eyes turn red as she scans both of us, stopping at Sofia’s abdomen before smirking in satisfaction to herself.

I don’t like the way she looks at Sofia and I instinctively push her behind me to protect her from this wicked witch. My gesture must have been amusing, because the stupid b***h starts laughing at me.

I snarl at her, making her laugh even harder.

“What the f**k is so funny?” I growl, finding it difficult to keep from ripping her to shreds.

“Salve, maiestatem tuam,” she smiles.

I stare at her in bewilderment.

What f*****g language is that?

I turn to Sofia and am surprised to hear her respond.

“Quis es?” She replies, walking around me.

I reach for her arm and pull her close to me.

“What the hell is going on?” I hiss in her ear, completely confused.

Did they know each other?

“She speaks latin,” Sofia sighs. “All gold wolves speak latin.”

“It’s the natural language of the wolf,” the girl snickers in Spanish. She has a slight accent but I can’t quite make out where it’s from. “So sad to see it fade away with every generation. It seems only gold wolves understand it now.”

“If you speak Spanish,” I snarl, “then cut the bullshit and start talking. Who are you and what do you want?”

The girl gives me a bored look.

“This game wouldn’t be any fun if I gave away all the answers, now would it?” She sighs.

Losing my patience, I unleash my telekinetic powers on the girl, squeezing the sides of her neck until she gasps violently for air.

“Mateo, that’s enough!” Sofia snaps, placing her hand on my shoulder. “We need her alive for now.”

It takes a lot of will power on my part to let the witch go, dropping her to the ground. She gasps for air, her bright red eyes glaring at me with fury.

“You’re going to regret doing that, wolf,” she threatens between coughs.

“I will ask you one more time: WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?” I growl, grabbing one of her wrists telekinetically and pinning it behind her back.

She g****s as I twist her arm but then bursts into laughter.

“I’ve lived long enough to earn many names,”she laughs. “But you, my dear, can call me Ira.”

Our witch has a name… now what did she want?

She bursts into laughter again. “Ah the fated pair….” She whispers, laying down on the floor and peering up at us through her bright red eyes. “Soon to bear the all powerful Ivory Twins. How wonderful to see the lovely royal couple face to face. It’s an honor,” she smirks. “I hope there are no hard feelings, your Majesty. My intent was never to kill you … not yet anyways,” she smiles at Sofia.

“Then what was your intention?” Sofia snaps, her palms bursting into flames.

The witch thinks for a moment, calculating her next words carefully.

“Patience my dear. All in good time,” the witch smiles. “Oh and I believe congratulations are in order,” she adds, sitting up cross legged. “Beautiful name, by the way. Salvador. It means savior does it not? Well, I don’t know how much of a savior he’ll be… he just signed your death sentence.”

That was enough for me. I lunge at the witch, Digging my claws into her neck as I strangle her. Despite her situation, the witch bursts into laughter again, not an ounce of fear in her eyes.

I feel sparks on my arm and look up to see my mate’s hand resting on my shoulder.

“Teo, please calm down. We need her alive if we want to get to the bottom of this,” she sighs.

I could feel my rage slowly dissipate with just her touch and I drop the witch onto the ground.

My heart still pounding with adrenaline, I bury my face in the crook of Sofia’s neck, inhaling her perfect scent to calm down completely.

The witch oohs and awws at our display of affection, making my b***d boil again. If she kept this up, I would actually kill her.

“Well, this has been fun,” the witch snickers. “But I must cut our little meeting short. I have some things to take care of. Until next time, wolves. Tootles.”

Suddenly the witch’s eyes turn brown again and she starts clawing at her neck, gasping for air. Little black veins run up her neck and her eyes begin to bulge out of her skull. Her body starts to convulse, thrashing violently against the cold pavement. B***d begins dripping down her eyes, nose, ears and lips until suddenly she grows still.

I tiptoe over to the girl, placing two fingers against her neck in search of a pulse, finding none.

“Did she just kill herself?” I ask, looking up at my mate.

“No I don’t think so,” she shakes her head. “Whoever this girl was, she was just a vessel meant to deliver a message. If anything, this is only the beginning of Ira the witch.”

I call in the guards to get rid of the body and lead Sofia out of the dungeon, holding her close to my body.

“He just signed your death sentence…”

The witch’s words echo in my head as we head home. I steal a glance at my mate who’s busy waving her hellos at the wolves walking by.

How could little Chava be our downfall? He was just a child!

I mull over the thought, trying to decipher what little information the witch gave us. It’s not until Sofia clears her throat that I realize we’re home, alone in our bedroom.

“Teo?” She asks, pushing me onto the bed so I can sit. “Are you okay?” She bends down to untie my shoes and remove them.

I spread my legs apart and pull her by the waist in between so that she’s pressed up against my chest.

“I think you were right,” I sigh, leaning my head against her.

“Aren’t I always?” She grins, pecking my lips and wrapping her arms around my neck.

“I meant about the babies…” I say, pulling away from her to look into her eyes. “I nearly lost you today and what that witch said confirms your fears. It’s not safe.”

Sofia combs my hair back with her fingers, humming a tune as she fixes my hair.

“Do you know what I thought about as I was fighting for breath?” She asks, climbing onto my lap so she was straddling me. She takes my hand and places it on her flat stomach, her hand resting on top of mine.

“I thought about how I was going to die… without even being pregnant with the Ivory Twins,” she murmurs. “How I was living in fear… and still unable to save myself.”

Tears stream down her face. “I don’t want to live in fear anymore,” she whispers. “I want to live the rest of my life, however short it may be, by my own rules. No witches, no vampires, no stupid wolves and their cartel allies, will get in my way anymore. I just want to be happy with you.”

I stare into her fiery gold eyes. There was not a trace of fear in them, just pure determination. We belonged to each other and nothing and no one would stop us from living out our days happily.

***Ira***

I fling a spell book across the room, knocking over a vase in the bookshelves. The sound of shattering porcelain echoes off the walls.

“That was a hand crafted vase from the Tang Dynasty, you i***t!” My sister snarls at me. “It was worth a fortune!”

“A stupid vase is the last thing on my mind right now,” I snap, glaring at my sister. “The boy was born. That changes everything. The oracle said ‘Every fourth, they will grow old…. should this child arrive with the leap, the Ivory Twins will soon follow.’ Every fourth ! Leap! The Oracle meant LEAP YEAR, Tais. That’s today! You f****d up! Instead of preventing the birth of the Savior, we made it happen! Those Twins are coming and if they do…”

“Then we’ll kill them,” Tais smiles, unfazed by her mistake. “Besides, we don’t need to kill the twins. Killing the Queen and her king before they become pregnant will suffice.”

“Unless they summon the Ivory Court and it’s army,” I remind her. “We won’t stand a chance against them and their allies.”

“So then we won’t take them head on,” Tais shrugs, as if that somehow fixes our issues.

She is too laid back for her own good. We need a plan.

“Care to explain?” I growl, growing annoyed with her elusiveness.

“Why it’s so simple,” she smiles, walking up behind me and resting her hands on my shoulders. “Every kingdom has its allies and enemies… but what if we turned them all against each other?”

“What do you mean?”

She growls in frustration. “It’s like I’m talking to a wall,” she mutters. “Let me spell it out for you. Kingdoms are built around ally-ships. It’s how they maintain power within a certain region. Allies help you, they don’t destroy you, right? Wolves pride themselves in loyalty, but at the end of the day, a wolf is loyal only to itself and it’s pack. It will double cross an ally if it means their Pack survives. Our job is to find the weak link in Queen Sofia’s allies.”

“You want to pit her allies against her?” I ask, finally piecing it all together.

“Exactly,” she purrs. “And as the wolves tear each other apart, we go in for the kill and watch Sol de Oro burn.”