Forbidden Queen

Alex

With their leader dead the remaining Black Moon Pack Warriors start to fall back. They have been crazed and fearless in their fighting but now that their leader is gone what little discipline they had has disappeared, and they start to flee the battlefield. I order the wolves that are not severely wounded to give chase. The more wolves we can kill now, will mean the less that we will have to face in future battles. I want them to fear us. To realise how many warriors they will lose if they force us to fight again.

Those in our party who are not warriors have started to take away the injured and the dead. I have told them to burn the bodies of the enemy. All apart from their leader. I want to find out who he is first. If Lucius had sent one of his inner circle to lead the attack, then killing him will be a real coup for us.

I call my officers to me and ask for the names of those who have been killed and injured during the battle. We have sustained losses, some of my best fighters are dead, but it could have been a lot worse. I tell them to appoint wolves to keep watch, and to prepare food and drink for the rest. We will rest here for another few day to allow our warriors to regain some of their strength, before we continue on our journey, but I don’t want to linger too long in case Lucius orders another attack.

With the key business taken care of, I take off to find Katy. I need to see her. I know she is alive, I can feel it, but until she is in my arms, I won’t believe that she is really safe.

I find her in the main tent with Joseph. I am shocked to see that she has incurred a nasty wound. “What happened?” I ask.

“The tent Katy was hiding in was attacked by enemy wolves. There was fighting, which Katy joined, she managed to kill one of the wolves herself” Joseph says proudly.

All I can feel is fear and anger. “You are hurt. Your arm is bleeding, and your neck is badly bruised.”

“Yes, but I am alive, and I managed to protect myself,” she tells me proudly.

“You shouldn’t have had to.”

She sighs at me “Yes, I should, those wolves attacked us because they were after me, I cannot let my people die without raising a finger to help. That isn’t the sort of person I am, and I don’t think that is the person you want me to be either, not really.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt. If anything was to happen to you, I don’t know what I would do.”

“I know, but I am always going to have to face danger that just comes with being the queen. The only way to truly keep me safe is to make sure that I can fight. That I am able to look after myself. I can’t rely on people to always be around to protect me. That didn’t work today, and it might not work again in the future.”

I pull her into my arms, holding her close. I know that she is right but the thought of her being killed by Lucius’ warriors terrifies me.

“So, can you tell me what happened today? I didn’t get to see any of the battle while I was hiding in my tent. I need to know what our losses were, how many wolves were killed or injured. I would also like to know how many of Lucius wolves we manged to kill or capture.”

“We were lucky” Joseph tells her. Five dead and thirty wounded. The Black Moon Pack’s losses were far higher. Thirty dead including their leader. Once Alex had killed him the rest seemed to lose the will to fight.”

“I have sent some of our warriors out to chase them. They have orders to kill as many as they can before they get back to their own territory”

“Good” Joseph says. Now we just need to find out who their leader was. I will send one of my men to photograph the body. I didn’t recognise him, but he was obviously someone important in their pack. Once we are back in the Royal Kingdom we will find someone who will be able to identify him.

I have sent a messenger ahead to the Royal Guard headquarters notifying them of the battle and requesting additional troops to meet us. We are not far from home now, so they should be able to send us reinforcements quickly.”

“I am going to go and visit the wounded and then I will need to speak to all the warriors who fought in the battle today,” Katy says determinedly.

“You need to rest, you are injured” I tell her.

“I will rest once I have spoken to the wolves who fought for me. I need to thank them. While I am visiting the wounded I can ask the healers, to clean my wound”

“You can’t stop her from fulfilling her role as queen” Joseph tells me.

I sigh, “OK, but I will go with you.”

“No, you need to rest. I am not the only one who has been injured. I will join you soon and we can rest together” she promises me.

I nod and let her go. I know that she needs to do this. That this drive she has to look after her subjects is what will make her a great queen.

Katy

Well that went better than I had expected. I thought that I would have a real battle on my hands to get Alex to agree to me visiting the wounded and thanking the warriors who fought for me today. It feels like he is finally beginning to understand that he can’t wrap me up in cotton wool.

I make my way to the groups of warriors who are lying around the camp, resting their bruised and bloodied bodies while the cooks rush to serve them food and drink. I go to each group in turn and thank them for fighting so bravely. I ask about their injuries, commiserate with them about the friends they have lost today. I check if there is anything they need, anything I can do to help.

Finally, I get to the hospital tent where the healers are tending to the wounded. The fight might be over, but they were still busily trying to treat all the injured warriors.

I see Daniel standing alone, apart from everyone else as he watches his mate Anna heal the injured. His face looks blank. Expressionless. I can see that he has also been wounded. There are deep claw marks down his arm and back, but he doesn’t seem in a hurry to get treatment.

I walk up to him. “Are you OK?” I ask.

He jumps. I can’t believe that I have managed to catch him by surprise. He must have been deep in thought.

He pauses for a minute before answering “Yes I am OK.”

“You don’t look it. What is wrong?”

“I am fine, I am just thinking about the fight” he tells me.

I think there is more to it, but I let it go.

“Anna seems to be doing well. She is healing so many people. Maybe we were wrong to be suspicious of her. I don’t know what we would have done without her. Diane and Simon are too old to have to cope with so many injured wolves on their own.”

“Maybe” he says.

“Maybe? Hasn’t she proven herself?” I ask him.

I can see an internal struggle going on in his head. Before he says again “maybe.”

I grab his hand and squeeze it. “What is wrong?”

“Nothing,”

“It doesn’t look like nothing.”

“I, I… I am not sure what is going on, but as soon as I know I will tell you. Let me figure it out for myself first.”

“OK” I say looking deeply into his eyes. I want to know what is going on in his head, but I can’t push him any further. I know that I need to trust my friend’s judgement.

“When you are ready, come to me and we will talk” I tell him before walking away. Now is not the time to force his confidence. I will speak to him again in a day or two when things have calmed down. For now, though I need to go and speak to my wounded warriors.