Arranged (The Queen's Mates 1)

A puppet ruler
When I was very little, my parents were murdered in front of my older-by-five-minutes twin and I. Then Callista was taken away, and I was made queen by those who wanted the power for themselves. The throne was not mine. Unless Callista was dead.

Callista is back, now known as Jillian and mated to three shifters who have her back in all things. And those who had killed my parents and left my sister to die in the forest have been punished by the high council. Once the elation of realizing my sister was alive washed over me, I was ready to pluck the crown from my head and hand it over to the true queen. Free myself of a future in this palace, where even those who had the kingdom’s best interests at heart would be constantly watching me. I could walk away and never look back.

But my sister did not want the crown. She has returned to her happy life in her little home in the forest far away, with her loving mates, and her new pack. She abdicated. I couldn’t blame her. I would have done the same, had the high council allowed it.

They have put her advisers in place, men and women who want me to be the perfect queen, to look a certain way, to act a certain way and although they say it doesn’t matter that I am almost completely deaf, I fear some among my subject may not agree. Like those who killed my parents, their prejudice comes through clear. Jillian, my sister, cannot speak. It’s quite a twist that her twin cannot hear.

As a puppet queen I was prevented from taking a harem, but now that it’s official, I’m screwed, and not in the good way. Royalty rarely gets to choose their own mates, and there are contracts in place that must be fulfilled.

I never wanted any of this. Not the crown, not my arranged harem, and certainly not this constricting dress.

Maybe I can escape like Jillian did.

Or maybe I’m just in a pit of quicksand fate and destined to drown.