Forbidden Queen

Anna

It has been over a week since Jordan arrived. I have tried to spend time with him, to help him feel at home and comfort him over the loss of his family. There is something strange about him, which I put down to the grief he must feel at his father’s death.

He veers between being cold and seeming uncaring, almost as though the loss of his father and pack doesn’t bother him. At other times be he is distraught, dwelling upon what he has lost.

I feel terrible that I cannot like him despite all the suffering he has been through and the fact that my father is pushing me to support him.

I try and spend more time at the healer’s clinic. I love being there. Healing is not a high-status skill in our pack. It can be helpful for injured warriors during war, but my father considers the need to heal ordinary pack members as weak and unnecessary. He believes that only those who are wounded honourably in battle deserve treatment. Any other wolf should accept their fate.

I however want to help my pack mates. The healers have told me that I have a special healing touch, that the moon goddess bestows on very few healers. When the healers encounter hopeless cases that they cannot help they call for me. I have the true gift of a healer and can through my touch heal wounds.

My father does not know of my special gift, he wouldn’t approve.

I receive a summons to meet my father in his office. When I arrive, I notice that he is not alone, his closest ally Mark, the Alpha of the Crimson Moon pack is sitting on the sofa. He is older than my father, and I have always tried to avoid him. The way his eyes roam over my body, the way he leers as though I am prey makes me feel uncomfortable.

My father doesn’t waste time greeting me and as usual he gets straight to the point.

“Anna, you will be eighteen in a few days,’ and it is time for you to take a mate. I have chosen Mark to be your mate. He is our closest ally and your mating will bind our two packs closer together” he tells me.

I am horrified at his words; I can’t stop shaking but suddenly a streak of defiance rushes through me. “No” I say. This is the first time that I have ever stood up to my father. I always strive to obey and honour my family, I expected to take a mate of his choice, but I cannot accept Mark as my mate. My skin crawls at the thought of this fat old man touching me.

“No. NO. You do not say no to me” my father shouts at me. “You will obey me and mate with the wolf that I have chosen for you. I know what is best for you.” I can see that he is about to lose control, that he is enraged by my disobedience, and worse the disrespect I have shown in front of outsiders.

I keep my head down. I won’t openly challenge him again, but I will not mate with Mark. If he tries to force me then I will I have to leave, runaway before the mating ceremony.

“GET OUT of my sight” my father screams at me. “Go to your room. You are to stay there until you have learned to obey me and accept that Mark will be your mate.

I silently walk out of my father’s office and return to my bedroom. I need to think, come up with a plan to get away. Perhaps I can run to my mother’s pack, they are not allies of my father. Their Alpha, my uncle, had refused to join my father and fight by his side against the Royals during the war. He stayed neutral, and even worse entered into talks with the royal pack.

I have never met or spoke to any members of my mother’s family, but they are my only hope. I need to travel to their pack and beg my uncle to take me in. It is over one hundred miles away from the Black Moon pack, and I would have to travel through dangerous territory filled with rogues, and enemy packs to get there, but any dangers I encountered would be nothing compared to the horror of mating with Mark.

For the moment I needed to keep my mouth shut and make my father believe that I will submit. While all the time I will be planning my escape.