Forbidden Queen
Chapter Forty-Four – Forming Alliances

Katy

It takes us an hour to reach the meeting place on the border. The settlement is small with a few houses scattered about, and there is only one building that looks big enough to take everyone who will attend the meeting. It is a simple hall, built from rough wooden logs. Guards wait outside. One of them walks forward, to greet us.

“Beta, the Alphas and their warriors have arrived and are waiting for you inside the hall.”

“Good, let them know that the queen is here.”

We get out the car, and I ready myself for the meeting. The is the first meeting I have had with ranking wolves from outside our own pack. Much rides on me being able to form alliances with the Alphas of other packs. This will be my first test, if I can’t persuade these wolves to ally with us then I am unlikely to succeed with the rest of the alphas we need to win over.

I walk ahead of Alex and Philip. I am determined to act like the queen I am. I need to display my royal power. The guard opens the door, and I step into the hall to be greeted by six wolves. I immediately determine that the two largest wolves standing in the centre of the room are the Alphas. The female Alpha of the Yellow Moon Pack is tall and slender, with red hair and piercing green eyes. She turns to stare at me. I let my power roll off me, making her feel my dominance. She bows her head slightly in recognition.

I turn to the male wolf he is over six foot tall with blonde hair and pale blue eyes. He doesn’t bow his head, and I watch as he tries to retain eye contact, but after a struggle he lowers his eyes.

“Thank you for meeting with me” I say to them. Shall we sit.” I point to a round table, surrounded by nine chairs. We all take a seat at the table. Once everyone has settled, I begin.

“I am pleased to be able to meet both of you today. I intend to foster friendly relations with all the Alphas that border my kingdom. I hope that this will be the start of many meetings between us in the future, and that we can improve the relationships between your packs and the royal pack.”

“And you wish to recruit us as your allies in the war against the Black Moon Pack” Dominic says shrewdly.

“Only if an alliance works for all of us. Lucius has shown that he no longer respects the neutrality of packs that did not fight during the war. Your packs are in almost as much danger from him as the Royal pack is, but unlike us you do not have the resources to defeat him. Only by joining together in a strong alliance with us do you stand a chance of surviving and not being conquered by the Black Moon pack.”

He nods. Acknowledging the truth of my statement.

For the first time Annabel the Alpha of the Yellow Moon Pack speaks. “What is to stop us forming our own alliance with other neutral packs. We could band together to defend ourselves without joining you.”

“Of course, you can” Alex says patiently “but do you think that will provide you with a large enough force of experienced warriors to defend you from the Black Moon Pack?”

“You are Alex, the new Alpha of the Lunar Eclipse Pack?” she asks.

“Yes.”

“Yours is a neutral pack, you did not join the war against Lucius. Why would you ally with the Royal Pack now? Purely because she is your mate” Dominic says scathingly as he points at me.

“No. I never agreed with my father’s decision to remain neutral. I had trained and fought with the Royal Pack long before I knew that Katy was my mate, before I knew that she was my queen. Knowing her now as I do,” he says turning to look at me with love radiating from his face “I know how right my decision was. The Lunar Eclipse Pack stands with the Royal Pack against Lucius.”

“She is already proving herself as worthy of the role as queen” Philip says. “Here she is in the northern territory away from the luxury of the royal court. We were always the poorest area, the territory that was overlooked, but the queen chose to come here first, before all the other territories” Philip says with pride.

I am touched by his words. I expected Alex to defend me, but Philip barely knows me.

Annabel nods. She seems convinced by what Alex and Philip have said. However, I can see from Dominic’s face that he is not so easily swayed.

“Even if my pack were to agree to an alliance with you, and it is a big if, that would not be the same as recognising you as our queen. You are not our ruler, and we will not be subjugated by you, we might as well surrender to the Black Moon pack.”

“That is not my intention. I am looking for allies to fight in a common battle against the Black Moon pack. This is in your interest as much as ours. Together we will be stronger. I am not like Lucius I do not want to conquer other packs and make them bow down to me.”

He nods and I watch as he relaxes slightly. This gives me the confidence to continue.

“All we are asking is that if one of us is attacked, by Lucius or by a band of rogues we come to each other’s aid. You will help Philip protect the northern territory, and his wolves will come to your aid if you are attacked. If the conflict becomes a larger war, then none of us will be safe and we will need to fight together” I tell them.

“A larger war would be between you and Lucius forces; it doesn’t need to involve us” Dominic says stubbornly.”

“And once he has defeated the Royal Pack how long do you think it would take for him to attack your pack?” I ask.

“Not long” Annabel says. “We know that Lucius is a threat to us now. I am honest enough to admit that that is the truth.” She turns to Dominic. “Dominic, we have little choice but to ally with the Royal Pack.

If you swear that you will not try to swallow up our packs and make us bow down to you then I agree to an alliance between the Yellow Moon Pack and the Royal Pack.”

I smile at her pleased that we have a new ally. “Of course. I swear by all that I hold dear, that the royal pack will not seek to conquer the Yellow Moon Pack or the Grey Paw Pack. That they will never be asked to bow down to me as queen or become part of the royal kingdom.”

She smiles and says, “I Annabel Alpha of the Yellow Moon Pack, swear that my pack will stand with the Royal Pack against the Black Moon Pack, and will come to their aid if they are ever attacked.”

We all turn to stare at Dominic.

“Fine” he says. “I Dominic, Alpha of the Grey Claw pack, swear that my pack will stand with the Royal Pack against the Black Moon Pack, and will come to their aid if they are ever attacked.”

I sigh with relief. I hadn’t expected that Dominic would agree. In fact, before we had arrived, I wasn’t sure if either of them would be open to forming an alliance with us. My first meeting with neutral pack alphas had gone better than expected.

“Now that we have agreed in principle to an alliance let us discuss the terms. We should also consider other areas of cooperation between our packs in relation to trade, and training. As you know the Royal pack have the most skilled and fiercest warriors, we could extend our training programme to include warriors from your packs as well” Alex says to them.

“That would be beneficial” Annabel says with a smile. “Our wolves are used to peace, and we do not have many trained warriors.”

I sit back and listen as Alex talk through the details of the alliance with the alphas.

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As we travel back to the northern territory packhouse Philip says “I am impressed your majesty. I didn’t expect you to win over Dominic.”

“Neither did I” I confess.

“People often underestimate Katy, but she has proved time and time again that she is a successful diplomat” Alex says proudly.

“I didn’t need to do much. It is obvious that Lucius poses a threat to all the packs. The only course of action open to them is to join us.”

“Well, our next meeting will be much easier. The North Fang pack are friendly towards us, and I believe that they will want an alliance.”

“It will also give Anna the opportunity to meet her uncle.” I am pleased that she will be able to finally meet her mother’s family. So far in her life she has had few opportunities to experience the love of a family.

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