Forbidden Queen

Katy

Half an hour later I am washed, dressed and ready to start work. I walk down the stairs into the grand entrance hall to find Joseph there already waiting for me.

“Have you had breakfast?” he asks.

“Not yet I wasn’t sure where to go.”

“You should have rung the bell and one of the servants would have brought breakfast to your quarters. I can take you to the dining room where the household eat their meals. There is normally a buffet breakfast available there. In future though it would be better if you ate alone, as befits your role as queen.”

I nod but I don’t really like that idea. “I don’t want to be distant, I would like to eat breakfast with the household staff.”

“That isn’t really appropriate. You need to be seen to act like the queen that you are, not the wolf you were brought up to be.”

“Can’t I be both? I don’t want to lose the ability to talk and engage with people, because I have suddenly become the queen.”

“We will see” is all he says. “Now let’s get breakfast and I can take you to your office.

He opens a door on the right of the entrance hall, and we walk along a corridor until we reach the household dining room.

Inside there is a large table on which a breakfast buffet has been laid out. I notice several wolves sitting eating breakfast at smaller tables that are scattered around the room. There is a low buzz of chatter until they notice Joseph and I have entered the room. They stop what they are doing and rise to their feet, head bowed.

“Your majesty.”

“Please sit and continue your breakfast” I tell them.

They do as I ask but an awkward silence settles over the room.

“They seem uncomfortable with me being here” I whisper to Joseph

“Of course, you are their queen. They cannot relax in your presence. Another reason why it is so important that you eat in your own quarters.”

“For now, but I am going to find a way to make them feel more comfortable in my presence. I am not going to keep myself apart from my people.”

“Why don’t we take our breakfast to your office?” he suggests.

“Good idea. Lead the way.”

We leave the dining room and walk to the end of the corridor. Joseph leads me into a large room with oak panelling on the walls. It is furnished with a large desk, and a small meeting table. Bookshelves line the walls an old-fashioned filing cabinet stands in the corner, and a large archaic computer sits on a side table.

“This is the queen’s office. It hasn’t been used since your parents died, it has been kept exactly how they left it. You may wish to decorate it to your own taste.”

“I will think about it thank you” I wasn’t sure what decoration would be appropriate for an office. However some more modern equipment would be a good starting point. “A more up to date PC would be good.”

“Yes of course, I will get IT to set you up with a new computer, and a log in to the Royal network.”

“The Royal pack has its own IT team and computer network?” I ask astonished.

“Yes, we are a large organisation, with offices geographically spread across the country. Our administrators aren’t restricted to the royal kingdom we have satellite offices within all the loyal packs. We need to keep in touch with our pack members, and the Alphas of the packs we are allied with.

Hopefully you will be able to visit them in person soon, but regular contact has to be maintained through the use of technology.”

“This is so much more than we had at the Lunar Eclipse Pack” I tell him.

“Well, yes, they are a smaller pack, so they probably didn’t need them. They chose not to form alliances with other packs. They were very much cut off from the rest of the werewolf world.”

Today I have set up meetings with Karen to discuss pack administration, and how the royal businesses and finances are managed. Aaron who will brief you on how your household is run and what ceremonial duties you will need to pick up. He is keen to reinstate the royal protocols that were important during your parents’ reign. Ruth will explain her role in maintaining our existing alliances with loyal packs, and the new alliances she is trying to form with neutral packs.”

“OK, let’s get started. I can’t wait to learn everything that I can.”

……………………

My first meeting is with Karen. When she arrives, Joseph leaves to oversee the training of the Royal Guards. I feel a bit nervous, Karen looked so elegant and quite imposing yesterday, but she soon puts me at ease.

“Your majesty I am going to talk you through how the kingdom is administered. I know that Joseph has already given you an overview, but I can provide you with more details today and I can arrange for you to visit the judiciary and the administrative offices in the capital.”

I thank her keen to learn more.

“The capital you passed through yesterday is the administrative centre for the kingdom. There are four other administrative hubs in each of the four Royal Beta’s territories, but none of these are as big, or as rich as the capital.

I am responsible for governing the capital and the surrounding area on behalf of the crown. I also oversee the kingdom’s tax collection and the judiciary which are both operated as centralised functions.

I have close ties with the Royal Betas in the territories, ensuring that we work together where possible.”

For the next hour she patiently explains to me what her responsibilities are as chancellor. She describes how the tax collectors visit all wolves who live and work in the kingdom annually to collect their contributions. The taxes that they collect are shared out based on greatest need to each of the administrative hubs, the goal is to ensure that each territory in the pack has access to a basic level of healthcare and education.

She explains that the judiciary are responsible for judging the most serious crimes of murder, arson and treason. These judges will travel to each of the territories to administer justice.

Karen has been so helpful and kind that I hope she will become just as important an advisor and friend to me as Joseph is.

Her detailed description of the royal kingdom’s structures has, really helped. They are far more complex than what I am used to at the Lunar Eclipse pack but also far more equitable. All wolves are treated as equally important and have the opportunity to progress to a senior rank if they can prove that they have the right abilities to do the job.

I think about how many more opportunities Emma will have here. Even if she wasn’t my sister, she wouldn’t automatically be forced to become a servant once she leaves school.

I am going to speak to Aaron today to ask him to prepare rooms for her arrival. I have been away from her for too long. She needs to be here as soon as possible.

I have heard so much about the territories that make up the royal kingdom and the royal betas who govern them, that it has made me eager to see them for myself. Karen has agreed to arrange a visit, but first, each of the Royal Betas will making their way to the Royal Palace to meet me and swear their allegiance.

After Karen has left, I am joined by Adrian who explains to me how the Royal household is run. He enters with a beaming smile on his face.

“I am so pleased that you are finally back with us your majesty. It is pointless being the head of the royal household, if there isn’t a monarch to serve. There are so many ceremonies, and events that we have been unable to hold, but now that you are here, we can return to the traditional royal life that everyone loves.”

I smile but I am not sure that I am looking forward to these ceremonies, life as an omega in the Lunar Eclipse pack has not prepared me for all the formal functions and ceremonies that go with being queen.

Aaron senses my discomfort. “I will be with you every step of the way your majesty to explain what you need to do.”

“The royal household is quite large” he continues. “There are thirty members of the household in total. Twenty servants, who maintain the royal palace and ten administrators who run the Queen’s office and arrange ceremonial and social engagements.

Aaron gives me a full run down of the composition of the royal household. By the time he finishes I am overloaded with information, but I have one final item to raise with him before he leaves.

“Now that I have arrived safely. I need to arrange for my younger sister Emma to join me here. Alex is speaking to Joseph to arrange the transport, but once she is here, she will need rooms in the palace, and to be enrolled in a new school. I want her to feel at home here and help her to make friends.”

“Of course, your majesty, that will be simple to arrange. There are suitable rooms close to your own that can be put at her disposal. I will arrange for her to be enrolled in the palace school, all the children of the royal household and guards attend. She will find that there are plenty of children her own age to make friends with and the quality of education that the school provide is outstanding.”

“Thank you” I say gratefully.

After Aaron has left I long for a break but I still have Ruth to meet.

Fortunately, my meeting with Ruth turns out to be fun. She is a lot older than me, but you would never guess. She is so easy to talk to and is intrigued by my former life in the Lunar Eclipse pack.

As part of her job, she needs to know about all the packs, whether they are allied to us or not. Because Lunar Eclipse Pack has been closed off from the other packs and the old alpha guarded its neutrality jealously, she has only the most basic information about the pack. She is fascinated to hear about the strict hierarchy, and the lack of women in prominent positions.

“I don’t know how you managed to cope growing up there! You are a royal wolf, how were you able to hide who you are? Your wolf must have been desperate to dominate those pack members who treated you as their inferior.”

“Before I shifted it wasn’t too bad, it was the way I was brought up and I didn’t expect to be treated any better, but once I had shifted, I struggled to control my wolf. It became more and more difficult to stop her from attacking and forcing other wolves to submit to her.”

“You must have amazing control over your wolf” she says sounding impressed.

“You will be pleased to hear that none of the packs that we are allied with govern in the same way. There are ten packs loyal to the Royals who fought alongside us during the war. I am responsible for maintaining good relations with these packs. I also try to form new alliances with other packs who remained neutral.

Recently a number of these neutral packs have expressed an interest in forming an alliance with us. They have experienced increased rogue attacks in the last few months which has been a drain on their resources. They have watched as Lucius uses these rogue attacks to destabilise and take over the weaker packs. They are scared.

An alliance with us seems a much better option. With your return, we are stronger, we are the Royal pack again. The fact that your mate is the alpha of the Lunar Eclipse Pack and has abandoned neutrality to support you, is even better.”

It is good to know that the other packs want to form alliances with us against the Black Moon pack it makes me hopeful that we will be strong enough to finally defeat Lucius.