The Blood of the Forest: A Queen of Lyria Novel (The Queen of Lyria Trilogy Book 1) by Casey Dunne

Author:Casey Dunne [Dunne, Casey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Casey Dunne
Published: 2021-07-27T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

“That’s Jay, he’s Alpha Samuel’s beta,” Kiren whispered to her as they watched the fight. Bree and Aria stood mesmerized by the speed with which Roven and Jay, the chocolate brown bear he fought, moved. The two Naguez were close to evenly matched, despite the bear spirit’s bulk. Aria knew that the position of beta was similar to Bree’s new position as Aria’s second, except that Jay held additional power over all the Naguez.

“Why doesn’t the Alpha fight?” Bree asked Kiren.

Aria was thankful for her friend’s curiosity. She had wanted to ask the same thing, but coming from Aria, they could perceive the question as a challenge. While Lyria and Crescent had built a powerful alliance during her father’s reign, it was still best practice to tread carefully around the Naguez's internal power dynamics.

“He used to, but not in the last couple of years. Not since Roven almost beat him. You can see how that would look bad.” Kiren answered.

Aria fought to hide her surprise at Kiren’s words. She wanted to probe further, to know what had happened, and glanced to Bree, flickering her eyes towards Kiren when he wasn’t watching.

“But they’re kin, surely Roven wouldn’t challenge his uncle.” Bree continued, having picked up on Aria’s eye signal.

Kiren stared enraptured by the way the two Naguez fought, neither managing to catch the other with their teeth as they evaded each other’s attacks. Roven’s wolf swung left, but then lighting fast doubled back to the right, landing a deep scratch into Jay’s shoulder.

“Not on purpose, no, I’m pretty sure he threw that last fight, but you have to understand the control it takes to get an alpha Naguez to back down. Samuel’s lucky Roven was so determined to get back to your princess, otherwise, he likely would have lost control and killed his uncle.” Kiren’s voice grew quieter as he spoke, and Aria had to lean in to hear him. She had done enough reading on Naguez dynamics to know that Kiren’s words rang true. Samuel should be dead, and Roven should be the Alpha of Crescent. If it was up to their spirits alone, that would be the case and Aria would be visiting Crescent under very different circumstances.

The Naguez around her cheered wildly when Roven finally got ahold of Jay’s hind leg, his teeth tearing into the flesh until the bear spirit submitted. The spirits seemed to almost bow to each other before Jay shifted back. Blood still coated his leg, but his wounds had already begun to heal. He would be fine by tomorrow. It always amazed Aria at how fast the Naguez healed during the shift. She healed quicker than most fae because of her mother's Siidha blood, but still nowhere near as fast as a Naguez did during the change. She could see Jay's skin stitching itself back together as he threw on a pair of shorts. Still, Roven had healed much, much faster.

“That’s kind of creepy to watch up close,” Bree remarked, and Aria couldn’t help but agree.

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