Page 1 of The Wolf King's Demand

ONE

ADDISON

“And have you moved in yet?”

Addison rolled her eyes, glad her mother couldn’t see her over the phone. Every conversation between the two always came down to this, and she was tired of it. As the Queen of Autumhart, her mother had every right to arrange a marriage for her, but that didn’t mean she could force Addison to like it.

“No, I haven’t,” she said bluntly while correcting a small error in the security code she was looking over. Technically, it wasn’t an error, but it read better this way, and as far as she was concerned, code that worked but didn’t read well was just trouble waiting to happen.

“Addison, I know you have your own ideas about arranged marriage, …” her mother began.

“It’s not a question of arranged marriage, Mom. It’s a question of my life. I’m fine getting married to Prince Tyler. But I need my own space set up to my technical specifications, and he can get used to it.”

“You know that we didn’t just choose Tyler because Somberglen is an important ally,” her mother explained for the four hundredth time. “Every match we selected for you and for your sisters was chosen with care and precision. We want you to be happy.”

“And that’s great for Lexi and Taryn,” Addison said. “I’m glad they’re happy with their mates. This is what me being happy looks like. And it’s not going to change.”

It was true. All of the sisters had a mate arranged for them by their parents to ally their kingdom of Autumhart with the various neighboring kingdoms run by shifter kings. As the girls were only half-blooded shifters, they could not shift themselves, and the arranged marriages helped protect them from any enemies who scorned the girls’ inability or thought of them as weak and easy royal targets.

Lexi and Taryn had been fortunate enough to truly fall in love with their betroths. Addison was happy for them, but that didn’t mean she was going to completely upend her life for Tyler. She would marry him and do her duty as a princess, but that was enough.

“Just you and your computer?”

“Just me and my multi-million-dollar cybersecurity business.”

Addison had always been fond of technology. Her parents were often afraid that she was retreating into it, making a fantasy life for herself where the fact that she couldn’t shift into a wolf didn’t matter. Addison didn’t see it that way, though. To her, the world of the internet was just as real as the world of her kingdom. She was simply building a different kind of power, not trying to replace anything.

Honestly, she didn’t understand the fuss. The house she had constructed for herself was on the grounds of the Somberglen castle. If she looked out the window, she could see the gloomy old thing. What difference did a couple of feet make, anyway, especially compared to all the good she could do for the kingdom through her business?

“Will you at least promise us to be open to exploring a relationship with Prince Tyler?” her mother asked. “That’s not so much to ask, is it?”

At that moment, Addison spotted something very wrong with the code she was looking at.

“I’m sorry, Mom,” she said. “I have to go. There’s an issue.”

“Will you just please make that promise …”

Addison ended the call and turned back to the abnormal code.

This isn’t just a minor typo, she thought, reading it over. This was planted deliberately. And it was subtle, too. It would be easy for someone less detail-oriented to read over this code and not think anything was unusual. It was spread over a few lines and interrupted with other bits of normal, harmless code. Still, it was unmistakable if someone was to put it all together.

A back door. All someone would have to do would be to insert a keyword on the right screen, and they’d have full admin access to her client’s security software.

Someone had planned on sabotage. Had they been paid off by a competitor? Was it some kind of personal vengeance or a plan to embezzle? Either way, she had better figure out who had done this and what they could use it for quickly, or her client’s entire business and her reputation would be sunk.

As her mind began to churn with possibilities, a loud screech blared, and the red light over the door started spinning. The security alarms! But those would only go off if someone had broken into her house.

Footsteps stomped up the hallway.

She froze and felt the fear a shifter wouldn’t have. If she were like King Tyler or her father, she could turn into a wolf with piercing fangs and deadly claws and attack whoever was behind that door. Instead, she grabbed a glass soda bottle she’d just finished drinking by the neck and tried to look as brave as she could.

The door burst open, and a man in a dark, hooded cloak leapt out at her. She saw a gleam and guessed it was from a knife, so she swung the bottle as wide as she could while also trying to get out of the blade’s way.

The bottle hit something hard. At the same time, the man’s shoulder rammed into her, sending her stumbling back against the desk. Before she could get her bearings, a fist slammed into her chin.

Adrenaline surged, and she dove to the ground just as the knife whistled over her. She kicked the man’s knees as hard as she could, once, twice, and he crashed into her bookcase. She tried to stand, but the ringing and the pain in her head made her wince and tumble. Desperate to survive, she crawled toward the door.

No time. The man was on top of her. Acting with pure instinct, she grabbed the hand holding the knife with both of hers, pushing it away with all her strength. With his free hand, the man hit her in the ribs. She groaned and headbutted his nose.

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