Closing my eyes, I turned my face up towards the sky, flinching slightly as the cold snowflakes fell against my skin, melting instantly. The chilly breeze freezing my body through my coat, to maintain some warmth I crossed my arms tightly across my chest. It wasn't enough, my body still trembled with shivers but I wasn't ready to go inside yet. It was so peaceful out here on the balcony, all you could see for miles was an endless stretch of white snow, a few evergreens here and there disturbing the peace, but they too were beautiful.

Inside was another story, we were being ambushed by calls, and all the papers that we had to sign. All the new treaties of every pack, all the negotiations Alphas were dealing with, and Alaricus and I had to look through every single package and initial it. Alaricus had been interviewing a few of his most trusted employees to make them royal advisors, and since I knew nothing about the job of an advisor, I'd snuck out. Although we already had one advisor, Frank had teared up when we'd told him he was to become one. Of course making Frank advisor meant having to promise Adrian he and his sister would both be advisors too once they grew up.

Two large arms wrapped around my waist, settling over my own arms, a broad chest being pressed against my back. I relaxed back into him as he cocooned me in his warmth.

"Alaricus." I breathed out, my breath visible in the air for a moment before it's gone. He hums gently, resting his chin on my head, tightening his arms around me.

"Is my Queen tired? Alaricus asked and I smile, shaking my head.

"Did you need me?" I asked.

"No I can handle the potential advisors myself, but it was getting too boring without you, so I snuck out." Alaricus tells me, and my brows furrow as I turn in his arms to look at him.

"Weren't you the one doing the interviews, how could you possibly sneak out?" I asked and he gave me a small sheepish smile.

"Well I just sort of stood up and left." He admitted making my eyes widen.

"You can't do that you big oaf, it's impolite." I hissed at him.

"Punish me." He said huskily with an irritatingly attractive smirk on his annoying symmetrical face.

"Bite me." I replied sarcastically, having been woken up far too early to deal with his flirtation. He snapped his teeth at me teasingly making my eyes widen. Chuckling at my reaction Alaricus bent down to press a tender kiss to my cold cheek, flinching at how cold it was. I let out a gasp as he put both of his large hands on my face out of a sudden, trying to step away, but only to hit against the rail of the balcony. I tried to ask him what he was doing, but my voice was muffled by his gigantic palm. I had to repeat it a few times before he finally understood.

"I'm warming your face up, it's so cold." He answered simply, not moving his hands, having no other option I bit into his palm. Out of reflex he pulled away, pouting as he shook out his bitten hand.

"I was only warming you up." Alaricus whined sulkily. For some strange reason after that meeting he'd turned more childish than usual. He was like a horny childish adult, and safe to say it was a little spooky.

"And I was only tasting your hand." I replied, and his honey eyes glinted mischievously as he wagged his eyebrows at me.

"Well in that case you may bite me whenever you'd like." He said cheekily.

"What is it about Mondays that makes you so horny?" I asked and he laughed shortly under his breath at my choice of words.

"You're so grumpy on Mondays, especially in the morning it's just so adorable it makes me want to pounce on you and cuddle you till the end of time." I stared at him blankly for a moment, not knowing how to feel about that.

"Alright well moving on, we should be getting back to the office." I said and Alaricus made a face at the thought of going back to all that. Unfortunately we both did not have a very strong willpower when it came to completely necessary but boring tasks, I had to be the strong one, otherwise Alaricus and I would still be in bed cuddling. Although thinking about it, that sounded like a wonderful way to spend our time. I really wasn't liking being queen, but it was something that had to be done.

"How about we take a vacation?" Alaricus asked and I scoffed.

"We've barely been working for a week and you already need a vacation? My grandmother has a better stamina than you, and it's been years since she passed." I mutter grumpily.

"Actually I have quite the stamina love." Alaricus said suggestively, and I would bet my fuzziest socks the man was laughing at his own little innuendo right now.

"That's enough freaky-wolf, we'll see how excited you are when you have to get back to all those treaties. The treaties of all the larger packs are yet to be read." I remind him, and I hear him sigh sadly behind me.

"Alright let's go, there is no way we are going to cut into bedtime for this, so might as well get to it now." Alaricus mutters, letting go of my waist and stepping back.

"Did you know there are actually people out there that don't like cuddling?" Alaricus asked, and I looked up at him to see his eyes wide, he seemed positively terrified at the idea.

"The horror." I said shortly and he nodded immediately. Eros must be quite close to the surface for Alaricus to be unable to pick up on sarcasm.

As we get to our office, Alaricus rushed ahead to hold open the door for me, and I nodded my gratitude as I walked past him. Going into his office, I settled down on one of the large leather chairs. Alaricus sat on the identical chair across from mine, passing me one of the thick booklets to look over, as he starts reading one. Alaricus had guided me through a few, just so I knew the look-fors and possible loopholes that the Alphas may cleverly incorporate in, but once I got the hang of it, it was more efficient for the both of us to do them separately and then initial it.

I tried to keep myself from zoning out as I read through the 30 plus paged treaty, and to do so Alaricus and I were mouthing the words to ourselves silently. But even then I had to read some paragraphs a few times over just to ensure I had actually interpreted what I was reading. Signing off on the treaty, a small smile came to my face as I saw the initials of Alpha Lily and her mate, no wonder the treaty had been written with so little bias. A werewolf and her human mate had written it together. I passed it over to Alaricus for him to initial it too, the treaty he had picked had unfortunately not been as smooth a read, he was circling things, and making notes feverishly. That one would be sent back to the Alpha unsigned, along with a phone call.

"Which pack wrote that one?" I ask, and Alaricus looks up, the cap of his pen held between his lips, strands of his hair having dropped into his forehead as he wrote. The pen dropped from between his lips as he opened his mouth to respond and he jumps a little as it clatters to the ground. The alpha king was the cutest little munchkin in the world.

"Alpha Khan." Alaricus muttered, and my nose scrunches in distaste at the mention of him. Why couldn't the man be more like his cousin? Alpha Ibrahim's treaty had been the first one I'd read on my own, and it had been a delightfully smooth 28 pages to read.

"It's as though he wasn't present at the meeting." Alaricus mumbled.

"He was quite injured for most of it." I said and a little smile blossomed on Alaricus' face, a faraway look in his eyes as though he were remembering thrashing Khan. It was a bit alarming but I wasn't the man's biggest fan myself so for all I cared Alaricus could giggle at his pain.

"We should call as we go." I grudgingly said to Alaricus. It wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation. The man hadn't been a very lovely person as it was, but now that Nicole, his mate had left him, he was probably even worse. I personally had been quite happy when I'd heard the news, but surely Alpha Khan did not share that sentiment.

Alaricus rummaged through the drawers of his desk, before coming up with a little black leather book. I didn't know they still made phonebooks. Everyone else just saved numbers into their phones. He flipped through the pages quickly, before stopping on one, and whipped his cell phone out, dialling the digits quickly. I raised a brow at him looking pointedly at the black book and his cheeks turned a little red, as he mouthed for me to hush up. He put it on speaker and we waited in silence until Khan finally picked up.

"Alpha Khan speaking." He said shortly, making Alaricus and I roll our eyes simultaneously.

"Khan it's Alaricus and Amara. We looked over your treaty, and there's quite a few revisions that need to be done." I couldn't help but feel proud of him, despite that fact that Alaricus passionately hated Alpha Khan, he spoke to him the way he would any other Alpha.

"Well, who don't you just send it right back and I'll look it over for you, your majesties." Alpha Khan said, but there was something oddly biting about his tone, almost as if he were being sarcastic. Alaricus and I made eye contact, looking at each other confusedly for a moment.

"By the way, I'm sorry about your window in advance." Alpha Khan said right before the line went dead. The both of us stared at the phone in confusion for a moment, had the man finally gone completely insane? My heart skipped a beat in my chest as I realized what that meant.

"We're under attack." I whispered to Alaricus. Dropping to my knees, I crawled over to his intercom system in a hurry. Pressing the talk button so that my voice would be heard throughout the entire castle.

"Everyone wherever you are, drop to your knees and get away from the windows. I repeat get away from the windows." I screamed, barely even pressing the button to end the message before Alaricus was on top of me, curling us both up into a ball, with him completely covering my body with his.

Seconds later a loud crash resonated from the floor below us. That mutt had broken the glass wall of the greenhouse. Alaricus wrapped his arms tightly around me, pressing a deep kiss to my forehead.

"I love you." He mumbled, his voice deeper and huskier, and I didn't even have the time to reply before he had gotten up and stood away from me. I watched in hushed silence as Alaricus grew taller, his muscles becoming larger, his chest and shoulders widening. His thin sharp jaw dropping open fractionally as two sharp canines grew to rest on his bottom lip. He panted desperately for a moment, before his blazing golden eyes fell to meet mine.

"Mate." Eros growled, lunging forward to scoop me off the ground, and holding me close to his chest. Bending down a bit, he gently nuzzled his nose to the side of my cheek affectionately.

"Sire Knight." A deep voice said from the office door, and we both turned to see one of the guards standing there, staring directly at the floor.

"Alpha Khan is at the palace gate, along with many other wolves, your guards are stationed as per the plan. What would you like us to do Sire?" The guard asked. Eros tightened his hold on me, before walking out of the office, cocking his head to get the guard to follow him. Normally I wouldn't be alright with being carried around in front of strangers, but I knew Eros desperately needed to be close to me to keep his cool.

"Guards will keep Khan from getting into palace. Palace people that cant fight will go to the safe room and wait. Eros will come outside to deal with Khan." Eros said, turning into the guards wing of the palace, with me still in his arms. Unfortunately I had not yet been made aware of what happened if the palace were to ever be in attack. Eros marched into one of the rooms, a group of guards were pacing around in there, while one sat before a large thin glass screen that displayed a live viewing of the outside of the palace. All of them talking quickly into their phones, and from what I could hear, they were discussing strategies with the other palace guards.

The palace had both human and wolf guards, the wolves were usually positioned outside, while the humans stayed inside and took care of surveillance. If ever the palace was under attack, the wolf guards' physical advantage over the humans made it a lot more sensible to have them defend the palace.

Eros walked right up to the guard sitting in the large leather chair.

"Out." He growled at the guard, who only now seemed to realize Eros and I were in the room. The guard immediately stumbled off the chair, all of them dropping into awkward bows of respect before us, and then going straight back to their phones. Eros gently sat me down into the chair.

"Mate watch gate through the screen. Eros go outside and kill Khan." Eros growled out, pressing a soft kiss to my head, inhaling the scent of my hair deeply, about to leave but I grabbed onto his arm.

"Eros will be careful, and you will not kill anyone, you will keep everyone in the palace safe. No one will die tonight. Promise me?" I asked him sternly.

"Bu-" Eros starts but I cut him off by pressing my lips to his.

"Promise me Eros." I whispered against his lips.

"Promise." Eros whispered back, pecking my lips one more time before he was off with the guard that had come to get us from the office. His back tense as he tries to keep from looking back at me. Him and the guard were gone from my sight in seconds, and I looked at the screen to see a clear view of the entire palace front.

A gasp escaped me as I realized Khan had brought what looked to be nearly his entire pack, and a few of the other Alphas that were reluctant about the new treaty. But those Alphas were much smarter than he was and seemed to have brought only their warriors, not their entire pack to be at the danger of being wiped out. They growled out words at the 40 or so guards who stood against the gates, trying to keep it from being opened as Khan and his people tried to break it open. Guarding the outside of the palace wouldn't be an issue as soon as Eros got there, he could handle much more than what Khan had brought. It was keeping the people inside the palace safe that mattered most.

My heartbeat increasing as I see them all back off, they couldn't possibly be leaving so soon. The guards stood no chance as the hundreds of people went charging at the gates, all crashing into it, and the lock gave in, the gate cracking open. Khan pushed it with all his might, managing to weasel through, as did some of his warriors.

Eros and the guard got to the gate just as Khan began to fight all the guards that surround him. Eros let out a deafening growl, that although the screen has no sound, I could hear from the inside of the palace. Everyone seemed to stop in place for a moment, most unable to stand and their inner wolf forces them to drop to their knees before that power. Only Khan and a few Alphas stay standing, but even they can't stand straight, their necks bend in submission before him.

I saw Eros start to talk and I turned to the guards, who had been eyeing me wearily, looking quite unsure what to do with themselves.

"Sound." I yelled at them and they jumped, before hurrying forward to set the screen up so that I could hear what was being said.

"Can we get you anything your highness?" One of the guards asked awkwardly as the others fumbled with the screen.

"No, but thank you." I said, swallowing the sarcastic reply I wished to give him.

"-worthless alpha that brings his pack to be killed." Eros growled out as the men finally got the sound on.

"Then kill them, they'd gladly be killed for what is right. Unlike you, they are loyal to their kind." Alpha Khan yelled, and some of his people cheered behind him, while others' faces grew so ashen, it looked as though they would faint right then and there.

Eros seemed to notice the same thing.

"Wolves that don't want to fight go home, Knight will protect you." Eros yelled out to them.

"Leave now and you won't have a pack to go home to." Khan threatened and I heard five collective gasps behind me making me wince as I turned to glare at the guards behind me.

"As king, Knight gives his word, turn away now and nothing will be lost. Eros will set Khan straight." He promised.

"Eros? Do you hear that people, his wolf isn't a part of him. The legend is true, he's a cursed wolf, he's not a born wolf the way we are. He wasn't meant to lead us." Another alpha pipes in, and I struggle to remember her name but simply can't.

"What does that have to do with anything? He could still beat all their asses." A guard whispers from behind me.

"Battle us cursed one, if you win, we will retreat and obey your rules, if we win the palace is ours. You and your mate will be hung." Khan offered, and Eros let's out a deadly growl.

"Filthy alpha dare speak of mate." Eros boomed, and I zoomed in on him to see him nearly vibrating with anger. The veins of his forehead sticking out, his handsome face contorted in anger, eyes blazing a gold so bright it's nearly blinding. Zooming out from him, I'm shocked to see that nearly half of Khan's little army has left. They were an easy bunch to scare. Beckoning one of the guards forward I keep my eyes glued on the screen as I speak to him.

"Ensure the ones who left are going home. Make sure there's none that may be trying to get into the palace another way, or even lurking in the forest." I commanded.

"There's guards positioned all around the palace, and cameras everywhere that are being watched. You need not worry your highness, the wolf troops have arrived. I will send some of them into the forest." The guard said, pulling his phone out again.

"Track those men, and keep in touch with them, I'm trusting you to keep them safe." I said to him and he bowed shortly before leaving the room. I turned back to the screen to see Khan make the first move. He lunged towards Eros, initiating the attack. But to his absolute humiliation, Eros simply smacked him away with one hand, mid-flight. He fell clumsily into the heavy snow.

"Attack." Khan yelled to the people, and they ran towards the guards, many of them being tossed away by Eros before they could even reach the palace guards. Eros' movements were nearly indistinguishable to my human eyes, I could only tell where he was according to where he'd last been, the nearest wolf that randomly dropped or was thrown far into the snow. My breath caught in my throat as I saw Khan attack one of the guards, and he bit straight into his throat, tearing his head clean off. A tear dropped from my eye, trailing ono my cheek as I saw the man's body fall to the ground, seeing Khan move onto the guard right beside him, doing the same with him.

The guards were highly trained, but they weren't as capable as a genetically advantageous Alpha was in battle. My eyes darted across the large screen, finally finding Eros who had come to a standstill, still gripping one of the warriors by his collar, and he let go of him, allowing him to drop to the ground. The warrior immediately pounced onto him, but he barely even reached Eros' shoulder in height, and despite how he was ramming into him, he couldn't even move Eros. But he kept trying as Eros tried to sniff out where all the blood was coming from, amongst all the injured bleeding wolves.

I zoomed in on Eros, seeing his top lip pull away from his teeth in a snarl. I struggled to navigate the screen as he ran through the battle, heading straight for Khan who was battling a member of the wolf troops, having gotten much closer to the palace doors by now.