I should feel sheltered, safe, in the sprawling halls of my home. And while normally I do, that emotion evades me today. I sense the tension rise in the room in front of me, behind the closed doors that separate my parents from me. There’s also an eagerness to my father’s other wives, and it is their eagerness that scares me most. Jealous of my mother and me, their strong desire for something my parents are apprehensive about, can’t be good.

At least not for me.

“Liana, they’re ready to see you now,” a house servant says, ushering me inside with an elegance only our pride can embody.

I walk into the room of thrones where four sets of steely eyes watch me.

My mother sits closest to the King. She’s the strongest of the queens, making her the most powerful person in all of the realms.

When I bow, it’s to her. My father is next, and the other lesser queens after.

My mother’s eyes dance across my face as she pulls her lips down into a slight frown. “We’ve received a message from the wolves,” she says, not meandering over nonessential business.

I stand erect, chin up. “So, they’ve captured their rogue? Good. Hopefully he won’t come around again--”

“Liana.” The harsh whisper of my name stops me and I grow silent. “It says that you attacked their wolf. That he’s barely recovering,” my mother says, her voice stern, her features hard, but her fingers twist on her lap, worrying the fabric of her dress.

“He surprised me. I was bathing. I only…”

“Liana!” My father’s voice cracks like thunder, the echoes reverberating in the large room. He rises, pacing in front of my mother and the other queens. The wildness behind his stare makes my insides tremble, but I hide my emotions from everyone in the room so as not to show any weakness. “They ask for us to turn over the idiot lion who’s attacked their son, Liana. The son of the Royals of Winter.”

“Son of the Royals?” I repeat, unsure if I heard him correctly.

Thinking back to that day, I try to remember the wolf, but it had all happened so fast. I was bathing in the warm water. A wolf darted through the brush. It was a rogue off his mark, out of his realm, and although I didn’t know that immediately, I protected myself.

“That wolf had been watching me,” I stammer. “He was out of bounds.”

My mother stands beside my father and he takes her hand when her knuckles brush over his. A heavy sigh falls from her lips before she explains the gravity of the situation. “He was heir to the Winter throne. Noble.”

My mind races, but I fall into silence, letting the drumming in my chest fill me with dread.

“If their demands are not met, there will be war,” one of the other queens chimes in.

Her eagerness for me to go to Winter is obvious and I bite my tongue so as not to remind her of her rank in our family and infuriate my father further. Her daughter, Lia was named so directly after my birth, because everything with the queens is competition.

Not my mother, of course. She’s superior, the one the other two copy. They vie for her attention, and for the King’s.

Lia lost rank to me last year, and our elder sister Calla, who’s also my senior, lost rank to me just before the wolf found me. Bathing.

Battle adrenaline still moves the lion’s share through me.

I suck in a deep breath and try to sound diplomatic. My father, who always reminds me I need to learn to be a better leader, that I need to find a more constructive outlet for my anger, waits for the brewing rage to spill from me. Steadying my nerves, I look to my father and then meet my mother’s attentive gaze.

“He was…watching me bathe.”

My mother gives me a half smile. She knows how private I am, which is my one trait that makes me stand apart from the pride who shares everything. Too often for my liking. I wrinkle my nose thinking about it, but straighten it when my mother shoots me a disapproving glare.

Lions are passionate, but I’m past that. Reigning in my emotions drains me, but still I stand tall and wait for them to issue their final command on my life.

Unease settles in the room. My parents approach me, their front united as they clasp onto one another. The strain behind my mother’s hazel eyes tells me more than I care to know. I bow my head, thoughts coursing through me, unnerving the confidence that’s always been a part of me. And I know, deep in my bones, I have nothing to fear. I’m their favorite. The one destined to command over the realms.