Eternal
Eternal
The Queen's Alpha Series, Volume 1
W.J. May
Published by Dark Shadow Publishing, 2018.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
ETERNAL
First edition. January 15, 2018.
Copyright © 2018 W.J. May.
ISBN: 978-1386970774
Written by W.J. May.
Also by W.J. May
Bit-Lit Series
Lost Vampire
Cost of Blood
Price of Death
Blood Red Series
Courage Runs Red
The Night Watch
Marked by Courage
Forever Night
Daughters of Darkness: Victoria's Journey
Victoria
Huntress
Coveted (A Vampire & Paranormal Romance)
Twisted
Daughter of Darkness - Victoria - Box Set
Hidden Secrets Saga
Seventh Mark - Part 1
Seventh Mark - Part 2
Marked By Destiny
Compelled
Fate's Intervention
Chosen Three
The Hidden Secrets Saga:The Complete Series
Kerrigan Chronicles
Stopping Time
A Passage of Time
Ticking Clock
Secrets in Time
Time in the City (Coming Soon)
Mending Magic Series
Lost Souls
Illusion of Power (Coming Soon)
Challenging the Dark (Coming Soon)
Paranormal Huntress Series
Never Look Back
Coven Master
Alpha's Permission
Blood Bonding
Oracle of Nightmares
Shadows in the Night
Paranormal Huntress BOX SET #1-3
Prophecy Series
Only the Beginning
White Winter
Secrets of Destiny
The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Rae of Hope
Dark Nebula
House of Cards
Royal Tea
Under Fire
End in Sight
Hidden Darkness
Twisted Together
Mark of Fate
Strength & Power
Last One Standing
Rae of Light
The Chronicles of Kerrigan Box Set Books # 1 - 6
The Chronicles of Kerrigan: Gabriel
Living in the Past
Present For Today
Staring at the Future
The Chronicles of Kerrigan Prequel
Christmas Before the Magic
Question the Darkness
Into the Darkness
Fight the Darkness
Alone in the Darkness
Lost in Darkness
The Chronicles of Kerrigan Prequel Series Books #1-3
The Chronicles of Kerrigan Sequel
A Matter of Time
Time Piece
Second Chance
Glitch in Time
Our Time
Precious Time
The Hidden Secrets Saga
Seventh Mark (part 1 & 2)
The Queen's Alpha Series
Eternal
Everlasting
Unceasing
Evermore
Forever
Boundless
Prophecy
Protected
Foretelling
Revelation (Coming Soon)
Betrayal (Coming Soon)
Resolved (Coming Soon)
The Senseless Series
Radium Halos
Radium Halos - Part 2
Nonsense
Standalone
Shadow of Doubt (Part 1 & 2)
Five Shades of Fantasy
Shadow of Doubt - Part 1
Shadow of Doubt - Part 2
Four and a Half Shades of Fantasy
Dream Fighter
What Creeps in the Night
Forest of the Forbidden
Arcane Forest: A Fantasy Anthology
The First Fantasy Box Set
Watch for more at W.J. May’s site.
Copyright 2018 by W.J. May
THIS E-BOOK IS LICENSED for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
All rights reserved.
Copyright 2018 by W.J. May
Cover design by: Book Cover by Design
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.
Have You Read the C.o.K Series?
The Chronicles of Kerrigan
BOOK I - Rae of Hope is FREE!
Book Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILAwXxx8MU
How hard do you have to shake the family tree to find the truth about the past?
Fifteen year-old Rae Kerrigan never really knew her family's history. Her mother and father died when she was young and it is only when she accepts a scholarship to the prestigious Guilder Boarding School in England that a mysterious family secret is revealed.
Will the sins of the father be the sins of the daughter?
As Rae struggles with new friends, a new school and a star-struck forbidden love, she must also face the ultimate challenge: receive a tattoo on her sixteenth birthday with specific powers that may bind her to an unspeakable darkness. It's up to Rae to undo the dark evil in her family's past and have a ray of hope for her future.
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ETERNAL Blurb:
WHEN THE KING IS MURDERED, his only daughter, Katerina, must flee for her life. She finds herself on a strange and dangerous path. Alone for the first time she’s forced to rely on her wits and the kindness of strangers, while protecting her secret at the same time.
Because she alone knows the truth. It was her brother who killed the king. And he's coming for her next.
Alone and struggling she finds herself an instant ta
rget, until a mysterious protector comes to her aid. Together, and with a collection of the most unlikely friends, the group must navigate through an enchanted world just as fantastical as it can be deadly. But time is not on their side.
With her brother’s hired assassins closing in at every turn, Katerina must unlock a secret that’s hidden deep inside her. It’s the only thing strong enough to keep the darkness at bay.
Can she find the answers she needs? Will she ever take her rightful place on the throne?
Only one thing is certain...she’s running out of time.
The Queen’s Alpha Series
Eternal
Everlasting
Unceasing
Evermore
Forever
Boundless
Contents
Have You Read the C.o.K Series?
Find W.J. May
ETERNAL Blurb:
The Queen’s Alpha Series
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
EVERLASTING... Coming February 2018
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Chapter 1
THE GIRL STOOD AT THE window, staring bleakly into the world beyond. There was nothing but darkness as far as the eye could see. A land blanketed in shadow, a night without stars.
Only a single light penetrated the endless gloom. A flaming beacon shining on a distant hill.
Even from miles away, she could see its brightness. The wild flames stretched up into the heavens, lighting the countryside around them and flickering in her eyes. Even so far away it was impossible to miss, and even without anyone saying a word the girl knew exactly what it meant.
My father’s dead. The king is dead.
The flames whipped even higher in the midnight breeze, and she took a sudden step away from the window. Her crimson hair spilled in rivulets down her chest, and despite the shadows all around her eyes shone bright in the darkness. Shimmering with the weight of a thousand tears. Gazing out the frosty pane of glass with a sadness that knew no words.
He was a hard man, her father. But he was her father nonetheless. And over the years, time had softened him. His children had softened him. He wasn’t as hard as he once was. There was a lightness beneath the weight of the crown. At times, he seemed almost ready to smile.
“We’ve got to go, milady!” A sharp whisper cut through the silence, breaking the girl out of her spell. “We can’t stay here anymore!”
The girl blinked several times, forcing herself back to the present, then turned to look at the cluster of frightened women standing at the foot of her bed. Despite the late hour, they were all fully dressed. It was an ingrained instinct, one that had travelled to even the highest levels of the land. If you wake up to a scream in the night, the first thing you do is put on your shoes.
“You’re right...” She swept through the center of them, moving strangely, as if she was in some sort of dream. “I need to pay my respects to my father...”
The women exchanged a frantic, helpless look as she groped around in the darkness, reaching for her coat. Less than a second later an ominous rumbling shook the very ground they were standing on, followed by a series of distant screams.
“Milady, you don’t understand.” The bravest of the women stepped forward, reaching tentatively to catch her hand. “There isn’t time—”
At that moment the door burst open, and the women fell back with a shriek. The girl looked up in a daze as a tall man strode into her bedchamber. A man who had weathered a hundred battles and had lived to see nights like this before. A man she had known all her life.
“The king is dead,” he announced with no preamble.
Although the beacon had told them as much, the women gasped and clustered together. The girl merely glanced at the beacon outside. Her thoughts were jumbled and made no sense. A chaotic parade of random memories, nonsensical and ill-timed. Each one hurrying to replace the last.
This is the man who taught my brother and me to ride when we were just children. My father is dead. I wonder what kind of magic sets the beacon on fire. My father’s dead. I must remember to tell the groom to have my horse saddled in the morning. My father is dead.
When he received no response, the man glanced nervously at the women gathered behind her. They shook their heads, at a similar loss, and he tried again.
“Your Highness...your father is dead.”
Her eyes flickered up to his rain-soaked hair, wondering vaguely at the smear of blood on his face, before she nodded robotically, pointing back to the window. “Yes, I saw the beacon. I was just gathering my things to go pay my respects—”
“You don’t understand!” A wave of panic tightened his voice, as if they were running out of time. “He didn’t just die, milady, he was killed. Killed by a dagger to the heart. This dagger.”
He reached inside his coat and pulled out a shining blade, pressing it firmly into her hands. A tiny jewel was missing from the left hilt, and a steady stream of crimson was dripping onto the floor.
For a moment, she simply stared. Then a jolt of delayed shock rocketed through her body.
...Kailas?
“No.” She held the blade away from her body, as if proximity alone could fight back the dark truth that was settling upon her. “No, this isn’t... it isn’t true. I know what you all must be thinking, but it isn’t true. It can’t be.”
The man bowed his head, staring down at her with unspeakable sympathy.
“It’s the prince’s blade, milady. And he used it himself. I was there.”
She shook her head back and forth, letting the knife fall from her hands as she backed all the way to the window. “There has to be some kind of mistake. Kailas...Kailas wouldn’t do this. He would never hurt our father—”
“He killed your father,” the man interrupted urgently. “And he’s coming for you next.”
The room seemed to get smaller and smaller as her eyes zeroed in on the blade. She was there the day their father gave it to him for Christmas. He’d broken it the very same night. Smacked it so hard against a suit of armor that one of the jewels had fallen out of the hilt.
“You need to leave the castle, milady. You need to—”
“I’m not going to run!”
The words echoed in the room, strong and fierce, freezing everyone inside to sudden stone. They came from a place deep inside her. A place she was only just beginning to understand herself. But as the beacon flickered in the glass behind her, it was as if the flames had jumped inside her body as well. Shock and fear gave way to anger. Anger and a fiery resolve. A demand for justice.
“I will not run,” she repeated, her eyes locking on her brother’s bloodied blade. “The castle is my home. The throne is mine by right. I will fight for what is mine.”
It was a rousing speech. But one that was ended by just a few simple words.
“Then you will surely die.”
All the women in the room turned to look at the man for the first time. He was tall and strong—even for a knight. But tired. Tired in a way the girl had never seen before.
“Everything that’s happened tonight, your brother has been planning for months.” His eyes flickered to the door as the chaos and clamor engulfing the castle began to get closer. “The guards are dead. The nobles loyal to you and your father are away from court. You have no allies.”
The girl shook her head, her crimson curls ablaze in the fiery torchlight. “But the answer can’t be to steal away in the middle of the night! There has to be a way—”
“Katerina.”
The name stunned her senseless, stealing the words right off her tongue.
Growing up as a member of the royal family, the rules of the court were clear: First na
mes were reserved for family. Only. If anyone else dared to speak them, they would be put to death.
But death was exactly the game they were playing here. That’s what he was trying to say.
“You need to run.”
Their eyes met for a second more. Just a second, but it was enough to change everything. A wave of sudden resolve rushed over her as she dropped the fancy coat she was carrying and reached for a travelling cloak instead. The man nodded and rushed back down the hall—assumedly to buy her as much time as he could—while she turned to her ladies.
“You will not be coming with me.”
A small outcry followed the words. As frightened as the women were, they were fiercely loyal at the same time. Proud to stand next to their mistress to the bitter end.
“What are you talking about?” The woman who’d grabbed her before made to do so again, unwilling to let her go. “Of course we’re coming—”
“You all have husbands here at court. You have family in the village.” Katerina shook her head, wrenching her arm away. “They’ll use those people against you, and I won’t have the blood of your families on my hands. You’ll stay here and accept my brother’s rule. I command it.”
“But milady—”
“I command it.”
The two women locked eyes for the briefest of moments. A silent, heartbroken exchange passed between them as they reached out and squeezed each other’s hands. Then another explosion shook the foundations of the castle, and everyone sprinted out of the room.
The women ran one way. Katerina ran another.
Now that she was out in the open, away from the sanctuary of her private chambers, it was easy to see that things were not as they should be. The halls were lit with torches, not tapers, and hardly three seconds could pass before the stones would echo with a chilling scream.
Katerina raced along in the shadows, moving as quickly as she could. Since she couldn’t be certain of who her brother had rallied to his side, she would be forced to trust no one. Forced to steal away from the castle and out into the darkened world beyond all by herself.