The Gold Queen (Prequel)
The Gold Queen – Chapter 31

***Karina***

Most werewolves get excited for their first shift but not me. I knew shifting would only make my father less forgiving of my mistakes and I was not sure I would survive any more ridicule from him. When the clock struck midnight, I got into position for my first shift, eager to put the whole ordeal behind me. But nothing happened. Several minutes of awkward silence rolled by and I still stood in my human form, much to my father’s anger. Twenty minutes later, my father lost what little patience he had and took matters into his own hands . I was chased by his wolf in an attempt to provoke my wolf out of me. It was the most terrifying fifteen minutes of my life. I found myself cornered near a cliff and my wolf had no choice but to come out to protect me.

After last night’s shifting fiasco, I did not think my birthday could get any worse, but no. Emiliano Altamirano had somehow managed to humiliate me even further.

My eyes burn with tears as I feel everyone looking at us, some soldiers unable to hold back their laughter and point. My embarrassment quickly turns to anger when I hear some whisper amongst themselves that deserved it for being such a stuck up b***h. My vision hazes with rages, my eyes focused on the i***t boy who started it all.

“I-I’m so sorry, Lieutenant!” he blubbers, reaching over to wipe the frosting from my face with his forearm.

Out of a force of habit, I grab his arm with both hands and flip him on his a*s like a tortilla, pinning him to the ground with my foot.

“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” I accuse, baring my new canines at him.

Show him who he’s messing with! Tania, my wolf snarls.

His eyes widen with fear and he shakes his head violently. “N-no No! It was an accident! I swear! I-I didn’t mean it!”

Before I can respond, I feel a sharp pain at the back of my head and a hand yank me backwards.

“Get your paws off my brother!” a girl screams.

I grab at the hand pulling on my hair and hunch my back, pulling my assailant over me and onto the floor before me. She yelps as she lands. That’s when something absolute incredible happens. A second version of her appears right beside, both copies looking up and glaring at me.

What the hell? I stare at her in shock.

The two copies aim to lunge at me when a deep voice stops us in our tracks.

“ENOUGH!”

I turn back to see my new Captain standing just behind me, arms crossed and nostrils flaring.

“Lieutenant Cortez, what is the meaning of this?” Captain Altamirano demands, looking around at the growing crowd of wolves watching. He narrows his eyes at them and snarls. “What is this? A circus? GET BACK TO YOUR TRAINING! IMMEDIATELY.” Wolves scatter like cockroaches, desperately trying to not anger the new Prince and our Future King. With the audience gone, he turns his attention back to us. “Care to explain why you have my brother pinned to the ground?”

Oh great. The brother card…

Despite my anger, my father had made it clear I could not embarrass him in front of the royal family or my new captain, so I kept my mouth shut and removed my foot from Emiliano’s chest. He and the clone freak get on their feet, the three of us saluting Mateo.

“Your superior is speaking to you. I expect an answer,” he growls.

I raise my face to look him in the eyes and answer but the Captain takes one look at me and fails miserably to hide his laughter. It only infuriates me even more.

Is everyone in this damn family an i***t?

“W-who did that?” he wheezes between fits of laughter.

“H-he did!” I almost yell, pointing at the pathetic wolf beside me.

“I-it was an accident, I swear!” Emiliano cries. “I-I just wanted to give her something for her birthday! I’m really sorry.”

“It’s true!” their sister chimes in. “He was up all night making those cupcakes for her and this is her thanks?”

My cheeks redden without my permission. H-he made them for me? Why? What did he want from me?

As I open my mouth to speak, the Captain interrupts with a g***n.

“Well this is a great start…” he mutters, switching his gaze between Emiliano and I. “Alright, look. Why don’t you go clean yourself off and report back here immediately when you’re done. Emiliano will be waiting for your instructions.”

I furrow my brows in confusion. “Waiting for my instructions?”

“Yeah,” the Captain shrugs. “Emiliano is your new student.”

My heart drops to the pit of my stomach. You mean I’m stuck with this moron?

“What?”

“Is that a problem?” the Captain asks, a hint of a challenge in his voice.

“N-no, sir,” I stammer, straightening out my back. “I was just wondering… wouldn’t it be better if a silver wolf trained him?”

“Emiliano is a special wolf. He doesn’t heal properly which means he needs to improve his defensive strategies and avoid being injured. You’ve spent the last 8 years mastering the art of defense without a wolf. I can think of no better teacher than you,” he replies. “Can you do this or should I look for someone else to replace you as first Lieutenant?”

The b***d drains from my face. If I lost my new rank, there’s no telling what my father would do.

“I will do this to the best of my ability,” I salute him, keeping my face devoid of all emotion.

“Good…” he says. “Then get started.”

The Captain turns to leave, the clone freak following close behind, intentionally bumping into me as she walks past me.

I sigh in annoyance, looking at Emiliano from the corner of my eye. He smiles sheepishly, muttering yet another apology and I g***n. It was going to be a long day.

***Emiliano***

Karina returns a few minutes later wearing a fresh army uniform and deep frown on her lips.

I open my mouth to apologize again for my blunder but she just raises her hand to silence me.

“If you apologize to me one more time, I will actually murder you. Shut up!” She hisses, narrowing her eyes at me.

I gulp down my apology and nod a quick yes.

“Yes ma’am!”

“Alright,” she sighs, rolling her neck and pulling back her shoulders. “Let’s warm up. We’ll do five laps and for every time I surpass you, you run two more laps. Got it?” She snaps.

She doesn’t give me a chance to respond before she starts sprinting towards the tracks at an incredible speed.

Move! Go! Go! Go! My wolf snarls.

I sprint after the Lieutenant, thankful that my legs were longer and that Mateo had made it a point in my earlier training to learn to run fast and hard. I just barely manage to catch up to her at the end of the lap, meaning no extra lap for me. She didn’t make the remaining four laps easy, sprinting at incredible speed that I struggled to match. With luck on my side, however, I manage to avoid getting additional laps.

We return to the mats, my lungs on fire as I force air into them.

She narrows her eyes. “We’ll have to work on your stamina.” She circles me, her cold gaze scrutinizing every inch of me and I blush. “You need to build muscle. You’re too scrawny,” she clicks her tongue against her cheek in disbelief. In a split second, she bends down and tosses a rock at me, hitting me on the shoulder.

“Ow, what was that for?” I g***n, soothing my arm and glaring at her.

“Poor reflexes,” she sighs with annoyance. “Seriously, is there anything you can do?”

“I…”

“Don’t answer. I don’t actually care,” she interrupts, gesturing for me to follow her to the boxing equipment . “Come on, we’ve got work to do.” She tosses a pair of boxing gloves at me.

We spend the next two hours going through a series of coordination exercises because I apparently lack hand eye coordination and as Karina put it, ‘punch like a girl’. She has me do footwork exercises, dodge and punch at nothing, all whilst barking my mistakes at me.

I was exhausted by the end of it, but grateful nonetheless. I desperately needed the push. If I wanted to become the greatest warrior of Sol de Oro, I would need someone to push me to my limits, and that someone was Karina.

As we pack up for the day, I thank her for her patience with me. She doesn’t say anything, picking up the last of the ropes we had been using and placing them back on their hooks. A bit defeated by her never ending coldness, I decide not to push my luck with her and turn to leave when she suddenly stops me.

“D-did you really make me cupcakes?” She asks, her voice soft and quiet.

I didn’t even know she could be quiet.

“Ummm….yeah,” I smile sheepishly, trying hard not to let my blush come through. “W-would you like to come over and try them?”

“You’re inviting me to the Hacienda?” she asks, a bit dumbfounded by my reply.

Was that too weird? I wonder.

“Sure. Why not?” I shrug. “You never got to eat your cupcake. It would be a shame for them to go to waste. The Princess and I really outdid ourselves,” I laugh

She doesn’t say anything but I see the hint of a smile spread across her lips.

“Can my sister come too?”

The exhaustion quickly evaporates. “Sure!”

Her smile brightens as we rush to gather her sister, Penelope.

***Warning: Violence depicted. Description of mutilation ahead ***

***Mateo***

I was reading through some of the contracts the King wanted me to study when I heard the melody of my mate’s voice call my name. My heart sinks when I look up to see her frowning.

“What’s wrong, chaparrita?” I ask cupping her cheeks when she reaches me.

“Teo… umm… There’s a woman on the phone looking for you. She didn’t say what she wanted, just that it was urgent she speak with you,” she sighs. “Teo, she sounded desperate.”

“Did she give a name?” I ask.

“Soledad.”

I panic. That’s Gabriel’s mom. She wouldn’t have called unless something happened. Did her husband replace her again? f**k I gotta call Gabriel!

Soledad was like a second mother to me and if she needed my help, I would gladly give it to her. By the time Sofia hands me the phone and I place it to my ear, my heart is pounding in my chest. I had a bad feeling about this call.

“Bueno? Doña Chole? (Chole is a nickname for Soledad) Qué paso? (What happened?)” I ask, panting slightly with fear. Sofia excuses herself to give me some privacy.

“Mateo!” Soledad wails, her sorrow pouring into the receiver. “Mateo!”

She sobs uncontrollably, making it hard to decipher what she is saying .

“Doña, calmate. I need you to calm down. I don’t understand.

“Mateo!” She weeps. “Mateo, they killed him! They killed my baby!”

No…

“Doña, I don’t -“

“They killed Gabriel. The Cartel killed him! Those bastards killed him!” She wails.

It feels as though a truck was sitting on my chest, the entire world stopping for an instant. My throat begins to tighten and breathing suddenly seems like a daunting task.

No.. No he can’t be dead. I just spoke to him two days ago. He agreed to be my best man!

“No, doña they must have mistaken him for the wrong guy. H-“

“He had been missing for a day… I-I didn’t think much of it,” she explains. “He was always going off to God who knows where. I didn’t even notice he was gone,” She whimpers. “But then two officers came last night…. They said they found his body. Those monsters tortured him. They tortured my baby! H-he was b-burned and shot, left h-hanging on a tree to rot and there was a note stapled to his chest,” she sniffles.

Tears well up with my eyes. Given the violence of his death, there was no doubt the cartels did this, but why? Gabriel wasn’t involved with drugs. Sure he bought them, but he never sold them. At least… not that I know of.

Chole answers my question before I can even ask it.

“I told him! I told him to stay away from that… from that Bustamante girl, but he wouldn’t listen!” she screams in frustration.

Bustamante? As in the Bustamante crime family, the same family controlling all the drugs on the west side of the Panuco River?

“He was messing with Dulce Bustamante?” I ask out loud, Chole confirming with a small whimper.

f*****g hell, Gabriel!

“Mateo, I’m so scared!” Chole cries. “What if those monsters come looking for Marcela and I. I d-don’t have any money. I can’t afford protection. Ay virgencita Linda, What am I going to do? What am I going to do?”

“Everything is going to be okay, Chole,” I attempt to soothe her. “You and Marcela are going to be just fine. I’ll take care of everything.”

I spent the next hour speaking with Chole, giving her detailed instructions to leave the state and head for el Distrito Federal (Mexico’s capital). The King had some connections there and I could easily get her and Marcela a small apartment set up and maybe even a job in one of the Reyes hotel chains. When I’m done with her, I get to work on dealing with Gabriel’s body. Given the state of his remains, I opt to have Gabriel cremated so that I could send him to his mother and she could do with him what she saw fit.

I keep myself collected as I make all the arrangements but by the time I hung up the phone, I was emotionally drained, hanging on by a thread.

Gabriel, my dear friend, the i***t who always got me into trouble was gone. He was gone and I could do nothing about it.

“Teo, baby. What’s wrong?” Sofia asks when she returns and sees me slumped over at a desk, staring at nothing.

I don’t answer, feeling completely numb and empty.

“Teo?” She calls out again, rubbing circles on my back. “Teo talk to me.”

I gather up some strength and wrap my arms around her, burying my face in her stomach as she stands beside me. Tears finally spill onto my cheeks and my shoulders shake with fervor as a sob ripples through me