Warrior Princess
Chapter 43

7 days until the war!

Kasens POV

“Hey Shawn, would you mind if I tried something?”

He shrugged. “What do you want to try?”

I poke his nose. “I want to talk to Sampson.”

His eyebrows furrow. “How do you talk to Sampson?”

Sam takes over. “You just need to relax and Kasens wolf, his name is Atlas, will talk to Sampson. Is that okay?” he nods his head and closes his eyes. I try to link him.

‘Sampson?’ I ask through the link. Shawn’s eyes open and they’re as black as my fur. Proof that he does have his wolf.

“You wanted to speak with me my king?” his voice sounds of that of a teenager. It’s strange hearing it come from a 5 year old.

“Yes, I did. I am curious as to why you have joined So early?”

He thinks for a moment. “You can trust me.” his eyes meet mine. “I know I can. I know Shawn can. I have been with Shawn since that night. When the rogues attacked, they broke into the outer lands houses. Do you remember?” he asks. I nod. Sam watches us in awe.

“Well, they broke into my house. They were looting, braking things, that woke my mom and dad up. They fought one and the others searched for any others. They came into my nursery. I can’t make out what they were saying from Shawn’s memories it is all fuzzy. But they tried to take him. That’s when our mother burst in the room and fought them. He was so scared. Too scared for a baby. The next thing I know I was bonded with him. I realized what was happening, the fear and the bonding was too much for his body. Our mom saw our shift happening. She calmed me down enough to stop the shift. But that distracted her and opened up room for her death. Shawn blames himself. His memories play on repeat in his dreams when memories from infancy shouldn’t even be able to be remembered. Shawn is special. The goddess told me so. But then so are you and My queen.”

I don’t have any words to say. He has been reliving that night his parents died. He remembers it all even though he was just a baby. He almost shifted as a baby.

“Thank you, Sampson.” Samantha says. He bows.

“You never have to bow to me. If you know who I am and if you can reach out to our wolves then you know what is going on and how we feel.” He smiles and leans into my mate.

“I know. This will be good for him. He will be happy.” Sampson said. He blinks his eyes and they’re back to the light brown color that we love.

“That was so cool! We’ve never done that before. Am I in trouble?” he asks.

“No buddy. You’re not in trouble. We just wanted to talk to him too! And I want you to know. I need you to know that none of that night is your fault. Your parents loved you. Your parents were my friends.” He has tears that finally spill over his eyes and down his cheeks. I take my thumb and wipe them away.

“But if I didn’t make her calm me down she would be fine.” He says. I pick him up and hug him.

“Shawn it isn’t your fault. Trust me. Do you trust me?” he nods his head. I hug him.

“I and Mrs Samantha have a question for you, Shawn.” he pulls back and switches his gaze from me to Samantha.

“We would like to know if you want to stay here?” she asks.

“For how long? Like a sleep over?” his little voice spoke up.

“We want to know if you want to be a part of our family. As in live here with me and Sam. We can never replace your mom and dad. But we want to become your other parents. If you are okay with it. We have fallen in love with you and our wolves love you. Both Atlas and Akira love you. We all want you to be ours.” I say. He’s processing the information.

“Like I would be your son? You would be my new mommy and daddy?” I nod. He doesn’t say anything for a minute. His eyes fog over. He’s talking to Sampson. Sam looks nervous and grabs my hand. I squeeze it.

“I would like that very much. I’m sorry, we would like that very much.” he says. He throws his arms around me and Atlas purrs.

“That tickles!” he says and I chuckle.

“You are my little boy. I have loved you since the day you were born. I’m sorry, you spent so much time alone. But now is the right time. Now we are here.”

He smiles. “Im not a little boy. I’m a big boy.” He pouts and Sam runs her fingers through his hair.

“What about the War?” he asks. No doubt drawing from what he heard in the throne room.

“There are good and bad people in this world. Part of my job as King is to protect you and our kingdom from the bad people. A war is a fight between the good and the bad.” He plays with the buttons on my shirt.

“So kind of like what happened to my first mom and daddy?”

I nod. “Everything will be okay buddy. I promise.” and I mean it.

“I am going to keep all of us safe.” I saw and surround both of them with my arms. He yawns and I look at my watch.

“Why don’t we go eat some lunch and then you can take a nap?” I suggest and he nods.

“Where is my room going to be?” I have 3 extra bedrooms here. It is all a matter of what room he wants.

“You can pick any room you want. Well, get you whatever you want to decorate it. Now let’s go to the kitchen and make some mac n cheese.” He squeals. What kid doesn’t like mac n cheese?

Were in the main kitchen in the palace since we didn’t have all the things we needed here. Which reminds me we need to get more groceries. Shawn is sitting on the counter helping my mate stir everything in the pot.

“Ooooh， something smells good in here!” Jake says coming in with Gemma. As if on cue everyone else comes in. David and Lucy, my parents, Josh, Duke and Theo, Marcus and his mate Elena, Alpha Aaron, Alpha Caron, and his mate.

“My new mommy is helping me make Mac n Cheese!“ Shawn shouts! Everyone stops talking and looks at me and Sam with an eyebrow raised.

“What?” Lucy says quietly.

“Surprise…” Sam said nervously.

“They said I can stay with them forever and that I can call them mommy and daddy!” Shawn piped in.

“I like that idea. Can I still be Uncle Josh?” I smirk. He thinks about it and nods.

“Son?” my dad asks.

“Our wolves claimed him. Both of our wolves actually. She went to talk to me about it and I was going to say the same thing when she asked. Our wolves conspired with us. But this was always my plan. It just wasn’t the right time before. After seeing him talk to sam. The first person he’s even sat with in 6 months made up Atlas’ and my mind. He is mine.” I said firmly. Atlas growled lowly making sure none of them thought otherwise.

“He is mine.” I repeat.

“Ours.” Sam said.

‘Relax Bud no one is going to take him from us. They love him just as much as we do.’ He calms down. Everyone has tears running down their faces.

“Why is everyone crying?” Shawn asked.

“Hey, if josh gets to be an uncle I want to be an uncle! I’ll be the better cooler uncle!” Marcus says puffing our his chest and flexing his arms.

Elena smacks his chest but hugs Sam. Her parents hug me and Sam. Everyone seems happy with our decision.

All of a sudden Josh stiffens. His eyes turn black. Bliz is in control. I look to sam and she stops stirring the cheesy goodness. The front door of the palace slams open and I hear shouting.

“We need a Doctor!” I make my way to the living room and see a group of people and Jason covered in wounds and b***d.

“We got out as fast as we could but one of the patrols at the border caught us. He’s dead. No one knows we left.” He says grunting in pain.

“Mate!”

I hear and josh runs to a girl standing at the front of the crowd. Her eyes dilate. She smells off though. Doesn’t smell like just a bear but the scent is new to me.

“What is your name?” he asked her.

“Anna.” she said.

“What are you anna?” I ask.

“I am a Hybrid. Im half bear, half Wolf.” she says.

I’ve never met that combination before. I look to my dad and he is just as shocked as I am. She may be the first ever Wolf bear Hybrid recorded. And then I think. Josh found his Second chance mate! And we have a room full of bear shifters ready to align with us. Then I’m brutally slapped back to reality.

We have a little less then 7 days now.

Samanthas POV

Josh found his Second chance mate, and she’s a hybrid. I’ve never heard of a Bear/wolf Hybrid. There have always been human crosses, or maybe witch and wolf but id have to say this would be a first for me.

The Doc comes in and looks at Jason’s wounds. Much to his protests I should say. Men and their stubbornness.

“Would you just shut your trap and let him look at you?” I say. He doesn’t argue much after that.

“Anna, My name is Samantha. This is my mate Kasen. Welcome to the Royal pack. We are going to get you all set up with rooms. Do you happen to have a list of who is here, and how many children? What needs you all have for clothing, blankets, or anything?” she looks deep in thought. Probably wondering why I’m asking her and not anyone else.

“Im asking you because you are the mate of one of my Betas. Josh is like a brother to me which makes you family” I say with a smile which she returns.

“I don’t but I can get you that information. Why do you need to know how many children are here though?” I can see why that would be sketchy.

“We have a daycare center, and a school. I would like to have children attend as long as their parents or guardians are okay with it. It will give them something to do while we are all training and focused on future events.”

She nods. “We have roughly 75 people total. 15 children ages infant to 17. Everyone else is 18 and older.”

Theo then speaks up. “only 75? Our numbers were well in the hundreds before I left.” He said.

“We lost a lot in the attack at the border. Those we didn’t lose were too afraid to leave. Things are bad back home my Prince.”

He grabs her hand. “Anna you know you don’t need to call me that. You’re one of my good friends. How bad are things at home?”

She shudders at the thought. “It’s bad Theo. Those who even think of speaking out against your father are publicly punished. One person died during their punishment last week for looking too long at your sister. He was whipped over 200 times. He was just 16. Looking at a pretty girl.” She chokes on a sob. “Every male aged 17 and up has been drafted to fight. Rank or not. Jason has more information on that and such but what I’ve told you isn’t even the half of it. I cannot even think of speaking the things we’ve seen the past few months.”

I place my hands on her shoulders. “You’re here now. You’re safe here. Theo is mated to Kasens Brother. He can tell you about how we run things here.” She straightens up.

“What do your women do here?” she asked. I smirked.

“We do whatever we want to do. We want to fight? We train to do so. We want to cook? Then we cook. There are no restrictions based on your gender here. We empower everyone. Granted we do force everyone to go through training at age 16. The type of training depends. But at 16 we mandate a basic self defense training. Just to make sure everyone here is capable of defending themselves. After that they choose what they want to do.” Her face brightens and you can see she looks happy at the possibilities.

“So I have to ask. And I’m sorry if this is rude. But which animal is your dominate one?”

She doesn’t waste time. She shifts into a large wolf. She is a deep red. But then she shifts into a large Kodiak bear. Taking up almost all of the space here.