rumored blackcrested wolf

After Kiera had pounced on the Hunter, she disarmed the man of his bow by clomping it with her teeth and breaking the wood with the force of her powerful maw.

When the other Hunters saw this, they all fled, leaving behind the man on the ground.

Kiera moved away from the man, growling low as he scrambled to get away from Kiera's hypnotic blue eyes. The man didn't bother looking over his shoulder as he ran away.

She shifted at once, quickly going over to where the scared figure of the fox was in the Hunter's cage.

"Are you hurt?" She asked her second Captain the moment she shifted back to her other form and released her from the cage.

"Scared, but other than that, I feel much better after transforming." She said with a sheepish smile to her General.

"Thank you Kiera."

"We need to leave, shift back and we'll make our way back to where we came from."

Jade nodded, and the both of them transformed. They raced back to where they started and after getting dressed, they promptly left the Hunting Grounds.

The matter was resolved without any of the Human Hunters losing their lives, but that did not mean the incident had gone unnoticed. Rumors swirled around the palace about a black wolf that was spotted at the Royal Hunting Grounds. It seemed like there were many others that had heard of her terrifying howls.

As for the Human Hunters that spotted the black wolf, they were heftily fined for Hunting at the Royal Hunting Grounds without a permit from the royal family. Kiera was told the hunters did not mind so long as they still kept their life. They were still in shock from seeing such a nightmare-inducing wolf. A wolf that seemed to know how to disarm men of their weapons.

Kiera kept quiet, as she knew her King would have had heard the rumors by now. She waited for his summons, but as the days passed on without so much as a single letter, she went to him.

"I know what you came here for," her King said as he read the book in his hands. The glasses on his face dwarfed in comparison to his mighty size. "No, I am not angry with you." He turned the page of his book. "Only a little disappointed."

There it was. He had spoken the word Kiera detested the most.

"You took great risk leading your Captain into the Hunting Grounds, both of you could have been killed, shot down like common animals and your pelts would be sold off to the highest bidder." She winced as the King continued on, her head hung low as a form of submission as she clasped her hands behind her back.

"We're not in our Forest anymore Kiera. Our Hunting Grounds were safe for us Beasts, but over here, everything is different. We can be easily mistaken for regular animals, for the average Human can't tell us apart." She hated being scolded like a child, especially on something she already knew, but nevertheless kept her head low and let King William chastise her. She saw it as a just punishment for failing to protect her second Captain.

Every word her King had spoken she knew was ultimately correct. Kiera had, in her lapse of better judgment, taken a great risk in going to the Hunting Grounds. She had led Jade directly into a dangerous situation that could have resulted in her death. This blunder of hers sickened her to her very core.

Her correct course of action should have been to round up several of her soldiers to keep watch. Kiera could have made a sweep of the Hunting Grounds and made sure there weren't any trespassing Hunters before letting her Captain shift. In truth, there were so many different avenues Kiera could have done instead of what she had chosen.

Her King sighed and closing in his book, he looked up at her.

"I am glad no one got hurt." His amber eyes looked at her kindly from behind his glasses. "I want to watch you grow even more than you have already." King William had the same sentiment as she did of her own group of soldiers. "I have watched too many youngsters die far too easily and far too soon. I don't want the same to happen to you."

"Keep your wits about you and live long Kiera. You have overcome so much to die a meaningless death." The King shook his brown mane, shimmering gold in the light.

"First you overcame the tragedy of your village and of your parents. Then you went through rigorous and intensive training at the Academy. Please don't let all your hard work go to waste."

Kiera cleared her throat, trying to clear away her rising emotions as well.

"I won't your Majesty."

His eyes softened at the sound of her voice. He stood up from his seat and gave her shoulder a pat.

"From the very first time that I saw you, I thought you had limitless potential. I still think that."

She blinked, willing away the moisture that sprang into her eyes. The King saw his General struggling to rein in her emotions and gave her an amused smile.

"You've changed Kiera. I can now more clearly see your emotions." He commented. "I suppose this new change in you wasn't as a result of your growing relationship with Prince Sam?"

"Have you been spying on me your Majesty?" Her eyes all but dried up at the mention of the prince.

"Of course not. I respect the privacy of my Generals." He said, but Kiera was still unconvinced.

"Who was it? Was it Helios? Gaspar?" She named off the first two people who immediately came to mind.

"None of them. As I said, I respect your privacy so I only hear tidbits here and there from various people." Her eyes narrowed as she thought of who else could be feeding the King information. She came to the conclusion the informant was most likely one of her own people.

"I wouldn't have to gather my own intel if you'd let me know how it is going with the prince." She sighed at her King's openly childlike behavior. He wanted to know the latest happenings between his Beast General and the Third Solomon Prince.

"I'm planning on rejecting him." King William lifted one of his dark colored eyebrows at her, perhaps wondering why she hadn't already rejected him.

"May I ask why you are planning on doing that? When we spoke together he appeared likable enough."

"Likeable enough to tell him about the Offering?" She almost glared at her King but stopped herself in time. She settled on giving him a hard stare.

A smile broke out on his face.

"Did he use that on you already? What a bold fellow!" He sounded rather pleased with himself. "Now, back to the reason why you must reject him."

"He's," her blue eyes shifted to the side as she desperately sought out a reason, "he's too nice."

Kiera's cheeks warmed up at the sound of her King rearing his head back and laughing at her.

"Too nice? If being too nice is your only reason for rejecting him then I think you are deceiving yourself. I have never once heard that being too nice is a reason enough for rejection." He waved away all her other equally as trifling reasons for why she had to reject him.

"Let's face it, he's caught your interest." His broad smile as he looked at her flushed face put her to shame.

"I look forward to the day in which I can see golden colored wolf pups."

That was all it took to make Kiera sink into the floor. She crouched on the ground as her hands splayed over her red hot face, trying to cover as much of her expression as possible. The image of her with a liter of golden haired pups flashed through her head.

"Please, stop." She begged in a soft voice. The famed Blackcrested Wolf had been defeated once more.

Her King only chuckled in response.