Forbidden Queen
Chapter Twenty-Two – What to Do About Anna

Katy

I have thought long and hard about what I need to do to help Anna. I feel in my gut that she is honest, and that she cares deeply for Daniel. She has already saved so many lives with her healing. I truly believe that we need to accept her and protect her but now I need to convince my mate of that.

As much as I love him, I know that there is a part of Alex that is pure steel. He can be harsh and ruthless when he needs to be. These are some of the qualities that make him a great Alpha. It is the other side, the one that makes him human, that cares for the welfare of his pack and the wolves under his command that I want to appeal to now. I know that he has the ability to listen, and not judge people until he knows all the facts. I need him to be able to do this for Anna.

He has been out all day. Spending time with the warriors who fought in the battle yesterday. Praising them for their bravery; trying to understand the impact of our losses; and determining our next steps. When he returns to our tent it is obvious that he is exhausted and I long just to take him in my arms; hold him and provide comfort, but I can’t delay this conversation any longer.

“Alex, we need to talk about Anna” I tell him.

“Now? I have had a tiring day can’t it wait until the morning?”

“I don’t think so. This is important. You need to hear what I have to say, and I want you to promise me that you will think carefully before you judge her.”

“Carefully?” he asks quizzically. “What has she done that makes you think like that.”

“She hasn’t done anything apart from helping us. Her healing saved the lives of many wolves yesterday. This isn’t about what she has done, it is about who her family are.”

I can see that I have his attention now, he is curious, but I don’t want to tell him the truth just yet. I plough on hoping my words will, stop him from overreacting.

“We both know that people should not be judged on who their family are or be blamed for their crimes. You are not like your father or brother, Lily suffered as much as anyone from her own fathers’ mistreatment.”

I watch him take in my words and I can see that the reality is beginning to dawn on him.

“Who are her family” he asks abruptly, anger beginning to build.

“Calm down, I am not going to tell you if you are going to lose your temper before you even know the circumstances.”

“I am not going to lose my temper, but if Anna’s family are like my brother or heaven forbid like Lily’s father then I need to know so that we can take the appropriate action. We can’t let one girl put us, put you at risk.”

“She isn’t going to put us at risk” I tell him impatiently. “She has already proved that she is on our side. Just look at how many lives she saved yesterday.”

“My father firmly believed that Carl was on his side, until he killed him,” he shoots back at me.

“But everything Carl did was cruel, meant to isolate our pack and keep us out of the war between the Black Moon Pack and the Royals. I can’t think of one kind thing that he did. One instance when he did something that truly benefited the Lunar Eclipse Pack. Anna is different, she….”

He interrupts me. “Just tell me who she is, and I will decide for myself.”

“Fine but you cannot charge off and act on the information that I am about to give you. We need to think about the repercussions. Think about the person we have started to get to know, and then we can decide on the best course of action.”

Alex doesn’t say anything. He just nods at me, and for the first time ever I wonder if I am doing the right thing by telling him the truth.

“She is Lucius’ daughter. The night that Daniel and our warriors found her she was running away from her father. The wolves they fought were trying to drag her back to the Black Moon Pack.

She told us the truth when she said she was travelling to her uncles’ pack. Lucius had arranged for her to be mated to one of his allies, which she was desperate to escape. She has told me how much she hates the violence of the pack, and it doesn’t sound as though Lucius even loved her as a father should his daughter.” Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ (F)indNƟvᴇl.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

I stop I can see from Alex’s face that he is battling with different thoughts and emotions.

“And you trust Lucius’ daughter to tell the truth?” he asks me.

“She is Anna to me first and Lucius’ daughter second. I am not prepared to condemn her just because of who her father is. She didn’t choose to be born his daughter. It would have been easy for her to run to the safety of Lucius warriors when they attacked us yesterday, but she didn’t. I think she should be given a chance.”

He leans in to me and strokes my cheek. “I love how caring you are how you want to protect everyone but is that blinding you to who she really is?”

I feel insulted. “No, I am not blind to who she is, I haven’t let her hoodwink me into believing that she is a good person. I believe Anna when she tells me about her childhood with her father, I am grateful for the way she has selflessly healed members of our pack. We need to give her a chance. Not to punish her for being her father’s daughter, and not to use her as a hostage to force better terms out of Lucius.”

Alex sighs. “You are right. If you think she deserves a chance, then I am prepared to give her one too. I won’t argue with you or challenge your decision. I love the fact that you can put aside your own hurt and loss in order to do the right thing. I will back you up when we speak to Joseph about her. I warn you though I don’t think he will be as forgiving.”

“Thank you that is all I ask.”

I can see that he is only half convinced but that is better result than I thought I would get. I just hope that when we speak to Joseph that I can convince him.

“I know you think that I am being naïve, but I don’t intend to trust her until she has truly proven herself to us. We will watch her, and if she acts suspiciously, if she proves to be a threat then we will act.

“OK, we will do it your way. As long as you can get Joseph to agree.”

“Thank you” I say leaping into his arms.

He smiles at me holding me close. “You do realise that Joseph is less likely to agree than I am, don’t you?

“Yes, but I think I can convince him. After all he needs to listen to his queen.”

………………………….

I decide to leave telling Joseph until the next day, I need to get this right. I know that Joseph’s first instinct will be to imprison Anna or worse. He hasn’t spent the last twenty years fighting Lucius just to welcome his daughter with open arms. I need to make him see that she is not her father. That she should be judged on her own merit.

For this reason, I have asked Diane to join us today. She is going to provide us with an update on the wounded. I am hoping that in discussing the wolves that Anna managed to save it will help highlight how valuable her contribution was to us during the battle. She worked as hard as anyone that day.

“How are you, Diane?” I start by asking her.

“Very well thank you your majesty.”

“Good. I want to thank you again for what you did during the battle. For saving the lives of so many wounded warriors”

“Thank you, your majesty, but my contribution was nothing compared to Anna’s. It was fortunate for us that she was found in the forest. Without her there to heal our warriors many more would have died. Her gift is remarkable.

I watch Alex raise his eyebrow and give me a small smile. He knows what I am trying to do.

“Your role cannot be overlooked Diane” I tell her kindly. “Could you please give me an update on how the remaining wounded are doing?”

“We have ten left that we are providing medical care for. They are not back to full health but should be able to travel soon.”

“Good” Joseph tells her. “We will need to resume our journey tomorrow. Lucius knows where we are and could at any moment send more troops to attack us.”

““With your majesty’s permission, I will leave now, so that I can start to prepare the wounded for travel.” Diane says as she rises from her seat.

Once she has left the tent Joseph turns to me and says “Well that is good news. Anna has proven to be a valuable addition. I cannot say that we should trust her yet, we still don’t know where she has come from, but she has gone up in my estimation.”

“Good. I am glad you think so because Anna has told me who she really is. You may not be happy when I tell you.”

“Really?” he asks suspiciously.

“Yes, she did tell us the truth when she said that she was going to her uncle’s pack, but she didn’t tell us why. Her father was intent on forcibly mating her to one of his allies. A wolf she hates so she ran away.”

“And who is her father?”

There is no way to sugar coat the answer to his question, so I plunge in “Lucius.”

“WHAT” he says jumping to his feet. “His daughter is here and has been allowed to roam free in our camp! We need to lock her up now.”

“No” I tell him. “We need to look at her as a person in her own right, and not judge her just because of who her father is. When our patrol encountered her in the forest she was about to be captured and forcibly returned to him where she would have been severely punished. She is an innocent girl caught up in a bad situation. She wasn’t looking to join us, we insisted on bringing her with us”

“I know it is worse than we could have imagined but listen to Katy” Alex pauses to smile at me “she has a point. Why would Lucius send his only daughter to us? She makes for a poor spy but a valuable hostage.”

“True” Joseph says. “She was desperate to leave, and I don’t think that was an act. I am grateful for everything she did to help the healers with the wounded in battle. I admit that these are not the normal actions of a spy, but can you really risk giving her freedom? Who knows what she could do next? She is her father’s daughter.”

“I think she would be loyal to us if given a chance and that we shouldn’t treat her as a hostage. I doubt that Lucius cares enough about her to sacrifice anything to get her back. She is however bound to us, in a way that his indifference and cruelty never managed to bind her to him. She is Daniel’s mate.”

“Daniel? Well that explains a lot. They do seem close, in a way that only true mates tend to be, but can you trust the mate bond to keep her loyal to him and yourself as his queen? Lucius and his pack have a history of subverting the mate bond to achieve their ends.”

“True, I am not suggesting that we trust her immediately or give her unlimited access to everything we do, but we need to give her a chance. While at the same time putting in place safeguards to ensure that she can never pose a danger”

“You have a plan?” Joseph asks.

“Yes I do.”

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