The Raven Wolf King: Wolfless novel Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Valeria

Black mist whips violently through the air, dragged by an unseen wind. The realm is dark and hollow. Nothing remains but a single empty throne.

It’s the same throne I saw before, the one where the Raven Wolf King sat in my dream. Now it waits

empty.

“I seem to have made an impression on you if you came again.” His voice cuts through the mist, low and resonant, carrying a weight that feels older than time. The Raven Wolf King strolls around me, his presence commanding, the mist bending to his feet. His hair doesn’t stir with the wind, untouched. And in that moment, I realize the wind isn’t real. Perhaps nothing here is.

“Am I dead?”

“Why would you be?” he asks. “Is that why you’ve come here in this form?” He circles me, eyes closed, yet it feels as though he can still see.

“Here, where? Who are you?”

He stops before me, eyes still shut. “You know who I am.”

“I–I… yes, I do. But are you real?”

“What is the definition of real to you?” he asks.

I touch my chest and belly. “Physical, real to the touch…”

“Could that not be described as your mind telling you it’s real? So how do you know for sure that you are real?” His fingers slowly caress my arm from wrist to shoulder. I feel it. “In dreams, anything can feel real. So, am I real?” he asks.

“Is this a dream?”

“Is it?” He walks behind me.

“Are you serious! Give me a straight answer!”

Before I can turn, he wraps his arm around me and grabs my neck, whispering, “Pain is real. The one thing you can’t fake in a dream.” He disappears into black mist and reappears in front of me, walking back to his throne. He sits just as I remember. One hand on the hilt, the other under his chin, eyes closed. He looks almost like a statue.

“Why won’t you speak to me?”

“I tire,” he mutters.

“Are you real?” I ask again.

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Looking asleep, he lifts his hand from the hilt, flicks his fingers, and I’m suddenly falling backward, pushed by an invisible force. Light flies past me, and I can no longer see him.

“Help!” I hear Grimm scream. “Help me!”

I gasp, opening my eyes. Grimm carries me in the hallway in front of the tapestry room. He immediately puts me down on the floor, staring at me in shock. “You’re alive!”

I can’t speak. I can barely breathe. A metallic tang coats my tongue–blood. “But no! You can’t be! You… were dead!” His voice cracks, tears clouding his eyes.

“What happened?!” Guards‘ voices blur together as they rush toward us.

The next thing I know, I’m being carried down the hall, the world spinning around me. By the time I can focus again, I’ve already been rushed into the hospital wing.

“It was wolfsbane we found in your system, Miss Langford,” the doctor says.

At this point, Grimm is here, and so are Tobias and Raphael. Raphael paces in the back, still upset about the news of me being here. Tobias leans against the wall, watching me with concern.

Grimm sets the box of chocolates at the end of the bed. “It was this.”

The doctor picks it up, sniffs it, then shoves it away with a sharp huff.

I really must have been too damn upset to have missed the smell.

“Where did you get this?” the doctor asks.

I look at Tobias. “Uhm… it was left in my room with this…” I take the box and pull out the tucked note. I lift it for all of them to read. Tobias’s face immediately falls, eyes widening. “That wasn’t me,” he says.

“What do you mean it wasn’t you? It says your name,” Raphael shouts.

I look at the card. “You know, the writing on the other cards I got from you looks different.”

“Who the fuck did this? Who the fuck knew you were sending her gifts?” Raphael growls.

“My Beta,” Tobias says. “I’d send gifts through my Beta, who would hand them to the Langfords‘ royal butler or their Beta. No one else knew, but then again, I wasn’t being subtle. I made my intentions clear and public. It could’ve been anyone.”

“Nolan is usually the one who brings me the gifts,” I tell them.

“Nolan?” Raphael asks.

“The royal butler assigned to us.”

“Urien!” Raphael shouts at the door. The door opens, and his Beta Urien peeks in.

“Bring me Alpha Langford’s royal butler!”

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Urien bows and leaves the room, while we all deal with Raphael’s fury. “This is ridiculous! Things like this shouldn’t be happening here in the damn castle!” He continues to pace. “First an assassin and now a poisoning?! This is unacceptable!”

“I’ll speak to Father about putting more security,” Tobias says.

“We’re already running thin,” Raphael replies.

“I’m confused. Why would anyone want to kill me?” I ask.

“You did save Raphael’s mother,” Tobias says. “Maybe that got you on someone’s radar.”

“Makes no sense,” I say. “I’m a nobody.”

“Aren’t you?” Grimm mutters.

We all turn to him, and he shifts uncomfortably under the sudden weight of our attention. “You ruined an assassination plan, and now you’ve caught the eyes of the first and second–born princes. You definitely have someone’s attention–maybe even someone inside the castle. It could even be simple jealousy.”

My sister suddenly crosses my mind–or even my mother. How stupid can I be? Of course, I have enemies. My own family.

Urien finally arrives with Nolan.

Raphael’s intensity doesn’t settle. He gets in Nolan’s face. “You! Who brought this box to Valeria’s room?”

“I did, Alpha Prince,” Nolan answers immediately, lowering his head.

“Who gave it to you?!”

“It… was given to me by a female maid. I don’t know her name, but I can describe her. Brown hair, almost red. Freckles, big green eyes-”

“Tori,” Grimm says. “That’s Tori. She’s…” He stops speaking and looks at Tobias.

“What? She’s what?!” Raphael urges.

“She’s one of Prince Roseana’s maids.”

Tobias takes a step back, completely shocked.

A glass vase goes flying into the wall, water splattering everywhere, thrown by Raphael. “Your fucking mate! And I’m not even surprised!” He gets in Tobias’s face and points a finger. “It’s the same shit that happened with our mothers! This is the fucking game you play when you do this multiple–mate shit!”

Tobias steps back, his expression clouded with confusion and loss. “I… I have to speak with her,” he mutters, voice trembling. He fumbles for the door, barely steady on his feet.

“Speak? Fucking lock her up!” Raphael screams, watching him leave.

I stare out of the open window next to my bed, taking in the fresh night air.

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Lesson learned. This is not the kind of life I want. None of it.

“Can I go back to my room now?” I ask.

“What? You were just poisoned,” Raphael says.

“I feel perfectly fine.”

“You still have blood on your lips!”

“Actually, she seems… perfectly healthy.” The doctor chimes in. “I can only suspect that the amount of wolfsbane used on these chocolates wasn’t a lethal dosage.”

I glance at them all. The doctor looks sure of himself. Raphael is panicking, Nolan looks worried, and Grimm watches me from the back, uneasy.

“I’m fine. I feel fine,” I tell them.

The doctor nods. “You may leave, Miss Langford. But come see me in the morning.”

“Great.” I get up, and of course, Raphael fusses over me.

I put a hand up, telling him to back off. “I can walk. And I’ll be going back to my room on my own.”

“The hell you are—”

“Nolan can see me back. I need you to stay away from me.”

“Valeria-”

“Stop, Raphael. I… don’t want to be near you right now.”

I know that hurts him, but I have to think of myself now.

He looks as if I’d just told him to go die somewhere. I know he cares, but these feelings of his come from what he wants, not what I need.

Nolan steps closer and offers his arm. I take it, and as we walk out, I mouth a quiet thank you to Grimm.

Once in my room, Nolan fusses over me, asking if I need anything or if I want him to fetch my mother. I obviously tell him no, and soon he leaves me.

I spend that night just thinking, unable to sleep. Everything runs through my mind. Everything that’s happened since I arrived here. The one thing I keep coming back to is that I’m tired of being someone else’s punching bag or someone’s toy. I want control of my own life. I want to be loved and cared for, but I don’t want to depend on a mate. The mate bond isn’t all roses and candy. I’ve learned that the hard way. So maybe I won’t have a mate, or maybe I will. I don’t know what the future has in store for me, but I know I can choose what to do now.

***

The next day, I wake up and head to the doctor. He gives me a clean bill of health. The moment I leave

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the hospital wing, I’m summoned by the King.

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