Queen of Rebels (Shifters of Sherwood #3)

Chapter One

Gone.

It’s all gone.

We crash through the undergrowth, blindly forward into the forest. Twigs and brambles tear at my legs, a root threatening to clip my stride and bring me down. I fling a glance over my shoulder, but there’s nothing to see—just the distant glow of a house and a life and a future that will never unfold.

Tuck stumbles ahead of me, his glasses reflecting what little moonlight filters through the canopy. LJ's massive form materializes beside him instantly, hauling him upright with a growl that sounds more bear than human. I want to check if Tuck's okay, but there's no time. There's never any time anymore.

It’s all gone.

I blink, gasp for air, push forward.

“Maren!”

The sound of my name jolts me. My name—not Princess or greasemonkey or anything tender or teasing, just pure urgency. I whip my gaze forward.

They’re ahead of me, considerably: Tuck, LJ, Will. Down the sloping hill, almost far enough into the trees that I can’t make out their forms, with Zayn thudding down the last few steps to meet them.

“Keep up,” barks LJ as I stumble next to him, chest burning. “They’re coming.”

Behind us, dogs bark, their howls echoing through the darkness. A distant flashlight beam darts up and around, white and foggy on the gray-black canopy of trees. I double over, hands on my knees, trying to drag air into my screaming lungs, and nod, but I’m biting back tears.

“We’ve gotta move,” Tuck says, fear gleaming in his eyes behind his glasses. “C’mon, Maren.”

I nod again, heave forward, but I’m winded, a wicked stitch ripping at my side.

“She’s struggling.” Will's voice cuts through the darkness, sharp as broken glass. "We need to shift." His silver hair catches the moonlight as he paces, reminding me of scales gleaming under water. There's an edge to his words I recognize—the same tone he used when I insisted on helping those families, when he warned me we were drawing too much attention. I should have listened.

“What about Maren?" Tuck asks.

"She can ride on my back." LJ's growl is pure protectiveness, and something in my chest aches at the sound. "I'm strong enough."

"Yes, because a woman riding a bear through the forest won't be conspicuous at all,” Will snaps. The fear beneath his sarcasm is a living thing, coiling around us all. "Might as well send up a flare."

“I can keep up,” I insist. Will darts a glance at me, and his gaze softens slightly.

“You can’t,” he says gently. Then, to LJ: “Fine.”

I whirl a glance around us, adrenaline pulsing through me.

"What about Zayn?" The words tear from my throat before I can stop them. "We can't just—"

“Ran track in high school,” Zayn says. “I’ll keep up.”

“Or don’t,” Will says shortly. “You’ve helped enough.”

A frisson of tension passes between us.

“Look, man, if you’ve got a—”

“Stop!” I cry, my voice ringing into silence and the barking of dogs. “Just—he’ll make it. We have to...”

“Go,” LJ says. Tuck nods, and so does Will.

"Now," Will commands, and the night explodes into motion.

Where Will stood, a silver dragon unfurls, moonlight skating off his scales like liquid mercury. Tuck's transformation is quieter—one moment he's there, the next a pale wolf crouches in his place, glasses fallen to the forest floor. And LJ... LJ's shift is a symphony of power, his massive bear form rising up before me like a mountain made flesh.

“Damn,” Zayn whispers, and I have to admit, I’m still stunned. Still in disbelief that this sort of thing is possible.

But there’s no time to wonder.

I awkwardly climb onto LJ's back, fingers sinking into his thick fur. He's fever-warm beneath me, his strength thrumming through my bones. He takes a step, then two, and I clutch at him, lolling to one side, but manage to keep my grip. With a leathery flap of wings and a whoosh of air, Will takes to the sky, and I choke back a gasp as he shoots a spurt of flame from between his jaws, pointing the way forward.

Tuck ghosts ahead, scouting our path on the ground. Zayn runs, too, but LJ quickly strips past him, moving swift, almost elegant, despite his size.

LJ's fur ripples under my hands as we race through the darkness. Each powerful stride of his bear form jars my already aching body, but I don't dare loosen my grip. I dig my fingers into his back and squeeze my legs against his straining muscles, lying forward on my belly to avoid branches. Behind us, dogs bay and flashlight beams cut through the trees like knife-blades.

Where will we go? The thought stings me like a whip crack. Leave Sherwood? Run past Nottingham? And...then where? We have nothing on us, nothing to go to, nothing to our name. Hours ago, maybe minutes ago, I still had a bank account stuffed with more cash than I’d ever seen in my life and a mansion to live in. And now...no more lazy mornings in the library, no more elaborate meals in that gleaming kitchen, no more safety wrapped in Egyptian cotton sheets and four sets of protective arms.

Four. Rob. The image of him transforming, of the bullet finding him mid-shift, ricochets into my memory. The way he crumpled, human again, vulnerable.

They took him. They took him, and they took everything we built together. The mansion with its hidden rooms and secret passages, the garage where I spent hours under the hood, the wine cellar full of Will’s collection, the garden where Tuck grew his herbs, the sparring space in LJ’s apartment.

All of it— gone. Because I couldn't leave well enough a-fucking-lone.

LJ thumps over uneven ground, jarring me back to the present.

No. That doesn’t matter now. We just have to escape.

My heart hammers against my ribs as I try to track everyone's positions. Will's silver form gleams overhead when moonlight catches his wings. Tuck's pale wolf shape flickers between shadows to our right. But Zayn...

A fallen oak looms ahead, its massive trunk blocking our path. LJ skids to a halt, and I have to lock my knees to stay mounted. In the sudden stillness, I hear what's missing – the sound of human footfalls keeping pace.

"Wait," I gasp. "Zayn—"

LJ's muscles bunch beneath me. To our left, Tuck's head snaps up, ears swiveling. Above, Will's wings cast moon-shadows as he circles lower.

The decision point spins out before us. Right or left? Every second we hesitate is a few more feet lost. And Zayn...

A shout rings out behind us, followed by the distinctive sound of someone crashing through underbrush. Away from our position.

"No." The word tears from my throat as understanding hits. "We have to go back—"

But LJ's already moving, powerful limbs eating up ground as he charges left around the oak. Tuck streaks past us like a pale bolt of lightning, and Will's wings beat madly overhead. Away from the sounds of pursuit. Away from Zayn.

"Stop!" I try to pull on LJ's fur, but he doesn't even slow. "They'll catch him, we can't just—"

The crack of a warning shot echoes through the trees. My fingers clench involuntarily in LJ's coat as more shouts join the first. But they're distant now, growing fainter as we put more forest between us and our pursuers.

Between us and Zayn.

He planned this, I realize with a sick lurch. Knew he couldn't keep up, so he turned himself into a distraction. A human decoy to buy us time.

Branches whip past, catching at my clothes, my hair. I should be watching for low-hanging limbs, but I can't stop straining my ears for sounds of struggle, of capture. Of worse.

But there's only the steady rising of LJ's breathing beneath me, the broad, even strokes of Will's wings in the air, the barely-audible rhythm of Tuck's paws.

I'm sorry , I think fiercely, hoping somehow Zayn can feel my gratitude, my guilt, my promise to make this worth it. I'm so sorry.

But the night swallows the words like it swallows everything else, until there's nothing left but shadow and silence and the sound of our escape.

Eventually, we find a dense cluster of pines. Will circles back and lands, skidding into the brush as he drops something from a talon-like claw—a soft bundle that I realize is their clothes—before transforming in a flash of silver. Tuck materializes beside him, human again and shivering. LJ lets me slide from his back before shifting, and suddenly we're all ourselves again—exhausted, afraid, but alive.

Wordlessly, the three of them pull on pants and shirts, and we collapse beneath the branches, five bodies reduced to four, pressed together in shared exhaustion and fear.

No one speaks. Because what is there to say? Rob is captured, Zayn is captured, and we're lost in the woods with no plan, no resources, and no fucking clue what comes next.

I stare into the darkness between the trees, feeling Will's shoulder pressed against mine, hearing Tuck's quiet breathing, sensing LJ's protective bulk at my back.

“You okay, Princess?” LJ says finally.

I nod, swallow. “Mhm.”

“At least we’re alive,” comes Tuck’s voice in the darkness.

Will snorts. “For now.”