Forbidden Queen

Anna

I am working in the hospital when Alex pays me a surprise visit.

“Hi” he says. “How are you doing?”

“OK” I smile, he has been great about checking on me since I told him about my father’s spy.

“Good, no news about the wolf who threatened you yet, but we are going to widen the search. As soon as we have something concrete, I will let you know.

The real reason I wanted to speak to you was to invite you and Daniel to accompany us on a trip to the northern territory. Katy is keen to spend time with Daniel and she would like to get to know you better.

Your uncle’s pack is close by, and we are planning to visit him while we are there. His is one of the packs that we are trying to form an alliance with. We thought that if you joined us, it would give you an opportunity to meet him, and spend some time getting to know him.”

“Thank you. I would love to do that.”

I am really excited at the thought of finally meeting my uncle. All my life I have wanted to know more about my mother’s family, to meet them. I may not want to escape to his pack now that I have found Daniel and I have a good life here, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t get to know each other.

“Good. We are keeping the trip a secret. With your father intent on killing Katy, it could be dangerous if too many people know what we are planning, so please don’t mention the trip to anyone. If the wrong people were to find out....”

“They would tell me father and he would make another attempt on the queen’s life.”

“Exactly. We plan to leave in a few days time. In the meantime, we will concentrate on finding your father’s spy. We won’t let anyone kidnap you and take you back to him. You are one of us now.”

“Thank you.” I feel reassured by his words.

Alex

I have shared the artist’s sketch of Lucius’ spy with all the wolves that Joseph and I trust but no one recognises him. How can one of Lucius wolves, walk straight into the heart of royal kingdom, metres away from the palace, and no one notices, or knows who he is?

My biggest fear is what will he do next. Will he be satisfied with just trying to contact Anna or will he come for my mate? We are doing everything we can to keep Katy safe when she leaves the palace grounds, but with Lucius spy able to come and go as he pleases, she isn’t even safe here. The journey to the north may be the best thing we can do right now.

In the meantime, Joseph and I are increasing the protection within the Royal Palace and widening our search for this Black Moon pack spy.

We have arranged a meeting with the senior warriors in the royal guard. Joseph kicks the meeting off by giving each of the warriors’ copies of the artist’s sketch.

“We are still no closer to finding this Black Moon Pack wolf, none of the warriors we have approached have recognised him. Up until now we have been careful about who we share this information with, worried that if we tell the wrong person they could tip him off, but we are running out of options. We think he realises that we are searching for him now, and we have lost the advantage of surprise. I need you to start sharing this image with the warriors in your squads”

They nod in agreement.

“I want you show the sketch to each warrior separately. You must monitor their reaction when they look at the image, to check if they show any signs that they recognise who he is. I will be doing the same with my Lunar Eclipse Pack wolves” I reassure them.

“We expect …we hope that they will pass this test. I trust my warriors, but we must acknowledge that someone in Royal or the Lunar Eclipse packs knows who he is and is helping him. If we don’t get the information we need from the warriors, then you will need to start questioning the household servants.”

“Do you think there are people within the royal household who are spying for Lucius?” one of the warriors asks.

“Undoubtedly, which will make your task even more difficult, we don’t want to alert them to how much we know. When you question the wolves, you should tell them we are interested in this wolf because he was seen trespassing on palace grounds. Not that we suspect him of being a spy for Lucius” Joseph tells them.

“I doubt that they will fall for that. We do not question all the warriors and household servants in order to catch a simple trespasser” comments another wolf.

“No, they might not believe you at first but press upon them that after the recent attack on my mate, the queen we are ramping up our security, and we will investigate anyone who trespasses on palace grounds.”

They nod. I can see that they are not happy to be questioning their squads about the spy, that they don’t want to believe that one of their own could be helping the Black Moon Pack. Neither do I or Joseph, but we are slowly coming to the conclusion that more than one person within the palace is helping Lucius.