The Luna Trials by Marissa Gilbert

3. Set Up

ancient tradition of the North. We will fail Savannah early on and will get rid of her. We don’t need that alliance much anyway, right?”“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” the king relaxed his back into his chair and clenched his lips.“What’s that supposed to mean?” Elene furrowed her blonde brows.“There is a lot of unusual activity in the white bears’ territory,” her brother took the first folder out from a huge stack that piled up on his desk during his absence and started looking through it.“What kind of activity?” The princess did not want to leave this matter alone. Not too many species chose the North as their place of residence and there were some good reasons for that. Some parts of the North were uninhabitable and, because of that, in the past, there were many wars between the northern packs of shifters. The ones between the white bears and lycans were always the worst. No one wanted that part of history to repeat itself.“It looks like they are up to something,” Kai muttered, checking the latest budget. “So, it’s really not the time to piss Gideon off.” Elene pursed her lips. For years she was dying to get at least a fraction of the western king’s attention. And now she suddenly hated him because he dared to find his true mate.“You are not seriously thinking of marrying Savannah!” The princess stood up and slammed her fists over his desk, almost leaving a dent.“God, no!” Kai chuckled. “But we need to play it nicely. Gideon wanted this alliance very much if he was ready for me to have his sister as a wife. You know how many times he rejected my proposals for her.”“As if you’d wanted her!” Elene rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair. “I saw her today and, trust me, she is nothing special. I don’t know what all the fuss is about.” The girl polished her well-manicured nails and her brother sighed, placing the budget papers back into the pile. He had already found two mistakes and that meant that he would have to go through them all over again, despite the fact that all he wanted was a hot shower and some sleep.“But she is the least of my troubles thanks to you now,” he reminded her. “Elle, I really did not plan to get married any time