Winter's Dawn (49 page)

That had always been the most terrifying part of the story for Max. Autumn scared the living shit out of him. He held domain over solitude, but that didn’t touch the fierceness of being not just the companion of death, but the guardian of it.

The lost spring and fall pairs had been the puppies of the Head Queen and King, the Summer Pair, Adam’s grandparents. Within a month they were gone too. Just like that, three of the seasons had given into the loss and walked over to the other side rather than face the heartache.

And all that was left was winter.

A young pair, the oldest of the ruling spring pair who died. They had lost puppies in the first wave of attacks too and Max wasn’t sure why winter had been able to survive losing young ones where the others had surrendered. What was it about his season that was forced to endure in the harshest of environments and simply trudge on through the onslaught?

Perhaps it was because some of winter’s puppies had survived. Among them Max’s grandparents, beta wolves, who had been spared and protected by their alpha siblings who died fighting to protect their more vulnerable packmates as alphas were apt to do. Serena and Katrina’s parents had survived as well. Most of the royal betas in the palace that day did. Their alpha packmates had made sure they were safe.

Perhaps that’s what had allowed winter to carry on, but then the other alphas had living beta puppies and hadn’t been able to brave the agony. Though none said it to Max, he knew their people thought winter was cold, unfeeling, with the thickest fur to endure even in the most unforgiving circumstances.

They didn’t know winter felt as much as any other season. For the first time, Max really hurt for that lonely winter alpha pair who had ruled alone for ten years before a second attack took their lives too. It left their offspring the task of ruling their people despite being beta wolves, a burden that should have never been theirs.

Max had fought rogues many times, and a long time ago he came to a conclusion that he would never reveal to his father or any of the other surviving royal betas from the old winter line.

They let those rogues win.

Winter wasn’t easy to defeat, but it could be done if they decided they wanted to quit. They got tired too. Winter was a harsh season, and winter alphas didn’t just survive, they thrived in it, but there came a time when life froze even winter’s desire to carry on.

The other wolves thought the lessons of the past were that rogues needed to be exterminated to ensure peace. Adam had dedicated himself to the task almost the whole of his life to avenge the deaths of his grandparents.

Max thought the lesson was
very
different. It wasn’t the rogues who had killed the old alphas. The loss of their puppies had. Offspring made alphas vulnerable in a way nothing else could.

He wasn’t ready for that sort of vulnerability.

He’d rather sit in the solitude of his season with only his mate for company for the whole of his reign, but nature had other ideas.

He should know by now that in the end, nature
always
won. There was no fighting it. Autumn would come and he was going to have to find a way to endure because that was his burden from the gods.

Max was winter.

He sustained even when it seemed impossible.

He doubted the strength of his season even as he got to his feet and walked back to the place in human form. Yet his feet were still moving, returning him to a destiny he knew wouldn’t be denied.

When he got to the place, he found Maggie by the open balcony doors in the ballroom. She wore a heavy coat over her nightgown, making him suspect she had been standing in the storm for a while now.

She held out pants to him when he came up to her. “I had a feeling you might need them.”

“Thank you.” Max took them numbly, willing to conform to her human-like tendency to believe he needed clothes to walk through the palace. He looked to his hands, feeling the sting of splinters still imbedded in them. “How did you know I’d be out here?”

“I know how afraid you are about this,” she whispered, reminding him that Maggie had been one of the few he confessed the fears to. “I was expecting it. When I heard the trees start falling, I knew it was you.”

“Gods, I hope Susie didn’t hear.”

“She’s still sleeping. I checked.”

Max nodded, surprised Susie couldn’t feel his level of terror, but then he suspected nature might be protecting her from it. The Gods could be kind on occasion.

“Can you get the doctors? I’m having them stay with us through the pregnancy.” He picked at his hand, pulling out one large splinter as his body worked at ridding itself of the foreign object. “I need to get all the splinters out before I go to back to my queen.”

“Bathe in my room. I’ll get the doctors and meet you there.”

“You won’t tell her?” He asked uncertainly when Maggie turned to leave, already all business with her determination to help save Max from himself. “Promise?”

She gave him a sad smile. “The secret’s safe.”

Max nodded and picked at his hand again, pulling out another splinter as he fought the last of his tears before he was forced to find a way to hide the terror from the one wolf who shared his soul.

“I appreciate you, Maggie,” he whispered, feeling young and vulnerable in a way he hadn’t in a long time. “I want you to know that.”

“Maxwell, you’re a good wolf,” Maggie assured him with such confidence he almost believed her. “You’ll be a good father.”

He lifted his head and shrugged, before a broken laugh burst out of him. “I guess we’re going to find out, huh?”

“Yeah, it looks like we are.” Maggie reached out and squeezed his arm. “You’ve come this far when you thought you couldn’t. You’ll be fine.”

Max snorted. “If you say so.”

Maggie’s smile broadened, becoming warm and genuine. “I do.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Summer 1967

“Maxwell, will you please stop with all this fog? I know you’re sullen but eight months is the point when you stop having this mist bleed all over the palace grounds.”

Max set down the file he was reading in bed and looked to Susie, who was standing by the glass doors to the balcony. “You think I’ve been making that fog?”

“Of course.” Susie turned to him in surprise. Her hands rested on her large stomach, which had made getting around difficult for her when she was already hot and miserable. “Why else would it be there mid-summer?”

“I don’t do fog.” Max raised his eyebrows pointedly. “If it was snow, yes. Ice, most definitely. Fog, no. I hate it.”

“I don’t believe it,” Susie huffed, because pregnancy hormones had made her more than a little temperamental. “This is your little protest to the pregnancy.”

“Susie Bee, I want you to stop and ask yourself if that fog is still there when I leave the palace.”

Susie gave him a long look and then turned to look out at the grounds again. “Gods.”

“Here, we’ll do an experiment.” Max lifted his hand and waved it, willing away the fog.

Susie gasped when it dissipated. Max picked up his file again and started reading while they waited.

It was less than a minute before Susie whispered, “It came back.”

“I’m not making it,” Max announced firmly. “I believe you have another king to blame for that.”

“What does this mean?” Susie mused as she continued to look out the window. “Were you making snow when your mother was pregnant?”

“Let’s ask her.”

“You’re being difficult.” Susie let out a low wolf growl. “I’m worried. Perhaps he’s unhappy.”

“Or perhaps he’s just a sullen wolf who likes fog,” Max countered. “Have you stopped to really consider autumn as a season?”

“It’s a nice season,” Susie argued. “It’s the season of harvest. It’s a wise season.”

“It’s the season of death. That’s a fact, Sue. Sorry.”

“He’ll be a good king,” Susie said. “Wait and see.”

“Okay.”

Max went back to reading his files, while Susie turned to look out the glass doors again as if pondering her words. It was several long minutes before she said, “Have you considered what a difficult existence a king has?”

“Yeah, Susie Bee, I consider it every day of my life,” Max snorted. “We’re going to owe him a huge apology.”

“I’m Head Queen.” Susie turned back to him. “Why can’t I fix that?”

Max gaped for one long moment. “I don’t know, because it’s nature. You don’t rule that.”

“I’m going to find a way to fix it,” Susie announced with maternal determination. “Your puppyhood was so difficult for you. You were born with the weight of the world on your shoulders and you knew it for as long as I can remember. I’m going to make his better. He’s not going to have a reason to be sullen.”

“You do that.” Max nodded, sensing a surge of pregnancy hormones. “Sounds like a good plan.”

“And you’ll support me?”

“We share a soul. I support you on most things.”

“Lovely.” Susie sounded pleased as she turned back to look out on the grounds once more.

“Indeed,” Max agreed as he started reading again, not realizing he had just flippantly agreed to something that would shake the foundation of everything they were raised to believe.

****

“SUSIE!”

Max shot up bed and looked at his hands, trying to the find the blood that had been there from his dream a moment before. He blinked, still caught in the nightmare and then yanked the blankets off Susie. The last time he had been plagued with the nightmares, she’d been a puppy. Now he was forced to look at her rounded stomach that grew bigger and bigger with each passing day that brought them closer to the Autumn Equinox.

“Maxwell.” Susie sighed and reached down to grab the blanket. She pulled it over her naked body. “You’re dreaming again.”

Max’s breathing was uneven as he fought with the wolf within him. Even without the sexual hormones that had been dormant since the Winter Solstice, he still felt wild and violent.

“Pills for you,” Susie suggested.

Max reached into his side table drawer and fished out his pills that he had been taking with more and more frequency as August had given way to the first weeks of September, and the warning of fall. He got up and poured himself a glass of whiskey at his desk and then walked naked over to look out the glass balcony doors.

He studied the fog-covered grounds, appearing dark and mysterious in the night. It was foreboding and gloomy. He waved his hand, willing it away and breathed a sigh of relief, until in the next moment it flooded back in stronger and more intimidating than ever.

His father was almost certain black wolves would rule autumn as it had been in the past. The gifts from wealthy black wolves had been extremely opulent. They were all excited to be represented in the monarchy.

It was a little more complicated for Max.

Black wolves were notoriously somber and vicious. Max should know, he’d been raised by one. He believed in nature, in the circle of things and he had horrible premonition that he was going to pay for the sins of the past. He hadn’t been an easy son to raise and he was willing to bet the new king wouldn’t be any more agreeable.

Rebellion was any black wolf’s middle name.

Being an alpha wolf just meant that everything inherently part of the new king’s bred was going to be that much stronger in him. Susie didn’t see it that way, but females loved sons. Mother werewolves were known for spoiling their male offspring and leaving their daughters to their mates to care for.

If only the first-born was to be female, a sweet little alpha wolf like Susie had once been, Max might have felt differently. As it was now, he was bringing an opponent into the world. A wolf who would one day sit on the Alpha Council with Max and rule as King of Autumn. He would have his own agendas that would likely conflict with the work Max had dedicated himself to for all these years.

Being an alpha wolf suddenly became a lot more complex.

It was little wonder female wolves nurtured their male offspring, but ignored the females. One day soon Susie was going to produce a queen who could oppose her too. There was a rhythm and reason to nature. The Gods had a plan and if alpha wolves were to rule with their offspring there had to be a division between nurturing their young and reigning with them.