The Reluctant Queen — Melissa A. Craven

Heir to the Valkyrie throne, Alithea belives she is better suited to the battlefield than the throne room. On the eve of her betrothal ceremony where she will finally meet the young man the queen's council has chosen for her--the man raised to serve her every need--Alithea makes a desperate decision that will change her life forever. Rejecting her birthright, Alithea flees across the broken bridge to the human realm where she must hide her true nature.When the queen's Berserker bounty hunter finally catches up with her, Druan gives Alithea no choice but to return to a war-torn world where her mother and all those she loves are trapped, powerless to resist the vicious usurper queen. To save her people, Alithea will have to do the one thing she swore she would never do. Ascend to the Valkyrie throne and take her seat as the High Queen of the Nine Realms, all the while keeping a dangerous secret that could destroy everything.