Chapter 61: Your Queen Has Teeth

An invitation arrived from a group of local pack members, inviting Naya to attend an annual community competition, agility, tracking, and controlled sparring among the younger wolves. Nothing formal about it, no royal ceremony attached, simply a tradition the pack held every year.

“I want to go,” Naya told Serena. “I enjoyed seeing ordinary pack life last time.”

Serena helped her choose something practical instead of another elaborate gown, and when Ronan learned about the invitation, his first question arrived immediately.

“Who’s accompanying you?”

“I’m going to watch a competition,” Naya said. “Not invade a neighboring territory.”

“Those aren’t the only things that can go wrong.”

“Ronan.”

He paused, something shifting behind his expression. “Would you let Tavian accompany you?”

Naya agreed, and Ronan’s shoulders eased slightly at the compromise, no order issued, simply a request she could accept or decline on her own terms.

Kael insisted on coming the moment he heard about it.

“I’m supporting my sister-in-law,” he said.

“You’ve never supported anything without making it worse,” Ronan said.

“That’s an appalling description of my personality.”

“It’s an accurate one.”

Naya laughed and told Kael he could come if he behaved himself. He agreed far too quickly for Ronan’s comfort.

“You’ll regret that,” Ronan warned her.

As they left, Kael leaned toward Naya and whispered that Ronan had been even more unbearable as a younger wolf.

“Keep talking,” Ronan said.

“See?” Kael grinned. “Unbearable.”

At the training ground, Naya noticed the pack members were considerably more nervous around her than she’d expected. Some bowed too deeply, others avoided meeting her eyes entirely. A young wolf accidentally called her by her name instead of her title and went pale the instant he realized his mistake.

“There’s no need to panic,” Naya told him gently. “I’m Naya when I’m not sitting on a throne.”

“He’d probably disagree,” Kael murmured, nodding toward Ronan.

Naya elbowed him, and the atmosphere around them gradually relaxed, people beginning to speak to her about the competition, their families, their pack’s history. She realized, watching the shift happen, that she didn’t want them to see only the King’s wife standing among them. She wanted them to feel comfortable approaching their Queen.

Tavian observed the change quietly. “People often fear disappointing royalty more than they fear being punished by it.”

Naya decided to watch the competition from among the spectators rather than from any elevated platform set aside for her. A woman nearby offered her a seat on an overturned crate instead, laughing when Naya accepted without hesitation, and for a while she simply sat among the crowd, cheering for strangers’ children as though she’d always belonged there.

Partway through a tracking challenge, a young male wolf lost his temper after losing to another competitor, accusing him loudly of cheating. The argument escalated quickly enough to draw the crowd’s attention, his wolf pushing close to the surface, eyes flashing, claws beginning to emerge as his breathing turned ragged.

Naya rose from her seat but didn’t immediately call for the guards. She approached the agitated wolf directly, her voice steady and firm.

“Tell me what happened,” she said.

As he spoke, the real issue surfaced, not the loss itself, but the weight of his family’s expectation that he win every single competition he entered. Naya didn’t excuse his outburst, but she gave him room to step back without losing face in front of the entire pack.

His claws retracted slowly. He apologized to the other contestant, his shoulders sagging with something closer to relief than shame, and the event continued without further incident.

Ronan arrived toward the tail end of it, enough to see that Naya had approached an agitated, half-shifted wolf before any guards had secured the area. Once the crowd thinned, he pulled her aside, his expression tight.

“You shouldn’t put yourself between two wolves losing control like that.”

“It could have become dangerous,” Naya agreed. “But I don’t accept that I should always wait for someone else to handle it.”

“I can’t ignore the possibility of someone hurting you.”

“You can worry about me,” Naya said, “without assuming I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Ronan went quiet, something working behind his expression.

“I was frightened,” he admitted finally, “by how quickly that could have gone wrong.”

The honesty softened something in her, though it didn’t change her position. She wasn’t trying to provoke him, only asking him to trust her judgment the way he trusted it everywhere else.

They left the conversation without full agreement, but with something closer to understanding settling between them.

On the ride back, Kael sat between them, declaring the afternoon educational.

“What did you learn?” Ronan asked.

“That my brother can survive an entire conversation without issuing a single order.” Kael turned to Naya. “And that my sister-in-law can make him look like he’s swallowed a thorn without even raising her voice.”

“Stop talking,” Ronan said.

“Progress interrupted,” Kael sighed.

Then, more sincerely, he leaned toward Naya. “He’s always found it difficult to separate caring about someone from worrying about what could happen to them. Not an excuse. Just context.”

Naya appreciated it, filing the insight away even as she intended to keep challenging Ronan whenever necessary.

That evening, Ronan found her on the balcony, the city lights scattered below them.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Not for worrying. For making it sound like a judgment of your ability.”

Naya accepted it, letting the apology settle without demanding more than it offered.

“I trust your judgment,” he said, “even when I wish you’d choose the safer option.”

“I don’t expect you to stop caring about my safety,” she said. “I just need you to remember that I’m a capable wolf. And a Queen in my own right.”

He took her hand. “I trust you. I’m still going to worry.”

She smiled. “I know. You’re very talented at it.”

He drew her closer, and the kiss that followed lingered, unhurried, settling the evening into something steady between them. Their disagreement hadn’t weakened anything. If anything, it had taught them both a little more about what being partners actually required.