Eden’s Destiny (The Royal Quads: Book 1)

Chapter 5

Eden

The headlines of the Regal Ridge Review glared up at me at breakfast the following morning. I had been summoned to join Grampa Greg in the dining room of their suite for breakfast. Grammy Sarah wasn’t there as she was ’dealing with Phoebe’ whatever that meant. I hoped she wasn’t being too hard on her. I mean, she may have helped me sneak out, but last night was completely my fault. I picked up the paper and looked at it again before slamming it back down on the table. I couldn’t believe the stupid headline. “Kingdom Beware: Princess Eden Rules with an Iron Fist!” There was a picture of me glaring at Tucker with his head jerked sideways from when I slapped him.

“Grampa Greg, this article is bullshit!” I practically shouted as he stared at me, arms crossed angrily over his chest. “First of all, I didn’t use my fist. I slapped him and he deserved it. Second, this article is calling me prissy and a snob, and it basically says that I think I’m better than everyone else!” I was so freaking pissed. The story accompanying that awful headline and picture only told about how I was caught screaming at a guy who shot me down at the club. Not one word was mentioned about how Tucker was my boyfriend or the fact that I’d caught him cheating on me.

“Language, Eden.” He warned me sternly. “You’re a princess, not a thug.” I snorted.

“According to this article…”

“Enough about the article Eden. How many times do I have to repeat the words ‘you are a princess’ before it sinks in? You are going to be watched and judged and the media and the people of this kingdom are going to do whatever is in their power to make you look like a terrible choice to take over for your grandmother and I.” For some reason, despite the fact that I wasn’t thrilled about being shoved here for the rest of my life, his words set me off.

“A choice?! I’m not a choice, Grampa, I’m the heir to the throne and to this kingdom!” I told him, furious. Grampa Greg glared at me.

“Finally. You get it.” He said, picking up his coffee mug and taking a long drink, staring me down the entire time. “Now it’s time you start acting like it.” With that, he turned and stormed out of the dining room.

~*~*~*~

I spent the next two weeks allowing myself to begin to be morphed into the perfect little princess. I spent my mornings training with the warriors, learning basic self defense moves. While initially I had dreaded the training, I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed it. Phillip, the warrior who had been assigned to me, told me that once I got the basic moves down, that we would move onto harder and harder skills as time went on. In addition to defending myself, I’d also eventually learn to fight. Honestly, that was the part I was looking forward to the most.

My afternoons were spent alternating between Grammy Sarah’s lessons on etiquette and manners (yes, seriously) and Grampa Greg teaching me what it meant to be not just the Alpha of a pack, but of the whole kingdom. It felt so tedious sometimes, learning about budgets and meetings, but I forced myself to pay attention and actually learn. Some of it I did find interesting, especially learning about all of the packs that were in our kingdom.

Grampa Greg told me that in the fall we would be attending the Alpha Summit which I was excited to learn was being held at Twilight Springs, the same pack where my older brother DJ and his mate Penny were Alpha and Luna. They already had one pup, Donovan who was two, and were expecting a little girl any day now. I couldn’t wait to see them.

In addition to the training, I even allowed Grammy Sarah to give me a makeover. I wasn’t overly thrilled about the idea, especially when we got to the store and Grammy started pulling out all of these business suits and skirts in very drab colors. Grey. Brown. Navy. Olive. With much hesitation, I did get her to agree to let me pick out a few of what I called “power suits” in brighter colors. I had one in a bright pink, one that was lime green, and one that was sky blue. Grammy raised her eyebrows at my choices, but after explaining that brighter colors demanded attention and that they’d be good for events when I needed to stand out, I caught the hint of a smile on her lips.

Mom and Dad called to check in with me on Sunday nights and I loved hearing about how things were going back home in Shadow Moon. Since my royal training had officially started, I found myself interested in even what I had once considered to be the boring aspects of pack life, like which of the pups in Youth Training were already showing promise as warriors.

After my parents and I talked for a little bit, they’d hand the phone over to the others. By “the others,” I of course meant my other three siblings, Ember, Auggie, and Asher. The boys were spending their summer hanging out with Nash, who was the son of our parents’ best friends, Beta Lance and Rayna Duncan. They were also pretty hung up on trying to find girlfriends to spend senior year with. Ember never said much during these calls, but that was mainly because she and I either texted or called each other every single night before I went to bed. Ember had gotten a summer job working in the pack daycare and was loving every second of it. I was happy that she had found something she enjoyed so much.

I had cut tonight’s phone call short thanks to a headache that had been nagging me all day. As werewolves, we very rarely got sick with things like headaches or stomach bugs like the human population seemed to be plagued with. And thank the Goddess for that, because man was this annoying as hell.

After saying goodbye to my family, I threw on a pair of shorts and a tank top and got into bed, hoping that with a good night’s sleep my head would feel better in the morning. As I lay in bed, my thoughts turned to Tucker, as they quite often did. I was still so furious at him and despite the fact that I was learning to be a classy princess, I couldn’t help but occasionally wish I had the opportunity to see him one more time… just so I could knee him in the balls.

As the thought filled my mind, I heard a giggle and my heart nearly stopped. I sat up in bed and peered around my dark room.

“Who’s there?!” I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking. I reached over and turned on my lamp, looking around the room again. I was alone. I shook my head. “Man this headache is f*****g with me.” I said out loud as I shut off the light and laid back down. Almost immediately the headache subsided.

Sorry about that! A cheerful voice said in my head. I sat upright again. No way. No freaking way!

“Hello?” I said cautiously. “Are you who I think you are?” A giggle again.

Hello Eden! I’m Wren, your wolf! Holy s**t!!