Forbidden Queen

Anna

Since my father announced that Mark would be my mate, I have been forced to spend my time entertaining him. I am no longer allowed to go to the clinic to help the healers, because every day after breakfast he comes to visit me and stays well into the afternoon. He spends his time pawing at me, his moist hands are always trying to touch me. Sometimes that just involves him trying to hold my hand in public, but when he manages to get me alone, he grabs at my breasts, and massages my neck where he proudly tells me his mark will go.

What spare time I do have, I use to plan my escape. I have been pouring over maps to plot my route to my uncle’s pack. I will not be able to take one of the pack vehicles. I have never been allowed drive one. In fact, my father forbade anyone from teaching me how to drive. He prefers that I stay on pack lands and if I do need to leave for any reason one of his warriors always has to escort me.

I am therefore going to have to make my way on foot and in my wolf form. I won’t be able to carry many of my possessions with me. The route I plan to take won’t be the quickest way to reach my uncles pack, I don’t want my father to guess where I am going. If I am going to evade the wolves that my father will send after me, I will need to avoid all werewolf settlements in case anyone sees me and gives me away. The journey will take days, but I can’t see any other option if I am going to get there safely.

I am determined to leave. The more time I spend with Mark the more I grow to hate him. I have to get away. Which is why I plan to leave tonight. After dinner, I will pretend to go to bed, and hopefully no one will discover that I am gone until the next day.

I keep to my own company normally so no one should realise that I am gone until Mark arrives for his daily visit. If I am lucky, it might take them even longer to discover that I have run away. They think I am weak and obedient, and I am hoping that this will mean that they spend hours fruitlessly searching for me on pack lands.

I have to hope that I get lucky and manage to escape, for if my father catches me his rage will be truly terrible. He expects complete obedience from me as his daughter. He will see this attempt to live my own life as a terrible betrayal and even worse as an attempt to humiliate him in front of Mark. I am terrified when I think about the punishment he will inflict on me if I get caught but I can’t let my fear weaken my resolve.

…………………

Once Mark finally leaves, I make my excuses and go up to bed. My father nods his head. He doesn’t even look at me as he continues his conversation with his beta. If it wasn’t for the alliance with Mark, he would have no interest in me.

I go to my room and check the bag I packed earlier. I make sure that I have everything I need. Money, clothes, maps, and a letter that my uncle sent to my mother, which I can use to prove to him who I am.

I open the door to my bedroom as quietly as I can and make sure that no one is around. Getting out of the house will be the most dangerous part. I need to be able to make my way to the back door, without anyone seeing me. If my father or one of his wolves were to catch me trying to leave the house with my bag, they would soon realise that I am trying to escape.

I am in luck as I meet no one as I make my way through the packhouse. I open the back door very quietly and slip outside. I know that I am still not safe, I have to make my way to the forest which is 100 metres away. The ground is flat and clear of any bushes or objects that I can hide behind. Guards patrol the grounds of the pack house regularly. I need to get to the forest without them seeing me.

I take a deep breath, to steady my nerves and start to move quickly but as silently as. I pause half-way when I hear a laugh. I know that the guards can’t be too far away. I move even faster desperate to get to the treeline before they notice me.

I am in luck and reach the forest just in time. As three guards turn the corner of the packhouse I manage to conceal myself in the shadow of the trees. If I had been only a few seconds later, they would have seen me.

I remove my clothes and shoes. Pack them into my bag and then tie the bag round my waist. I quickly shift and take off, running. I have memorised the route for the first part of my journey. I need to run without stopping until daybreak. I have to get as far away from my father and the pack, as I can before they realise that I have gone. Once they realise that I have escaped I know that my father will stop at nothing to find me.

Katy

I notice that as we get further from the Lunar Eclipse pack lands that Alex and Joseph become more and more tense. Joseph has increased my training. I spend longer at night trying to defeat the warriors he selects from our entourage. They are all different, some big and muscular, others fast and agile, each with a different fighting technique. As soon as I get close to defeating one of them, or if I manage to land a blow, he replaces them with someone else, and we start all over again.

I am spending each night with a different group from the Royal Pack, sometimes Alex joins me, other times he sits with Joseph and Daniel. I am getting to know each of the wolves by name, understanding what their role in the pack is, and who their family are. At first, I thought that my escort consisted only of warriors, but I soon discover that we have trackers, cooks and two healers. I try not to think about how much they will be needed if Lucius attacks.

Tonight, I am sitting with the two healers, Diane and Simon. I am fascinated by what they do. I had very little to do with the healers in my old pack. We only had two for the whole pack and they rarely agreed to treat the omegas. Diane and Simon have been working as healers for fifty years. They had served during the war and have many stories to tell of how they accompanied the guards when they fought against Lucius’ pack.

“We are so lucky to have you” I tell them. “In my old pack, the healers we had mostly looked after the health of the ranking wolves. When we were attacked by rogues, Alex made sure that they helped all the injured, but we didn’t have the resources that you do.”

“We treat all pack members, rank and status has no bearing on the treatment we provide. However, all our healers are growing old, and we worry that when we are no longer able to work there will be no one to take over from us” Diane tells me.

“What about younger members of the pack. Don’t they want to train to be healers?” I ask.

“It is more complicated than that” Diane says. “Healing is not just something that you learn. We are not like human doctors, we don’t butcher our patients’ bodies, or fill them with pills and potions. The gift of healing is bestowed by the moon goddess on only a small number of werewolves. Those that are blessed with the ability to heal send energy into the body of the patient. We can teach and train others how to use their energy, but they must first be bestowed with the ability to heal by the goddess herself.”

“And haven’t there been any young werewolves who have been bestowed with these powers?” I ask.

“A few, but those that we find are weak, and find it difficult to heal the most serious injuries” Simon says. “Before the war, we used to search for all the gifted amongst the packs. Those with the power to heal would come to the Royal Pack to train. Many would return to their own pack after they had completed their training, but some would remain, to learn more and to serve the Royal Pack.

When the war broke out, that all stopped. We healers stuck to our own packs and concentrated on healing the members of our pack who were wounded during the war. We stopped sharing knowledge and healing techniques, and consequentially the number of trained healers declined. Without training the packs were left with healers who could only carry out limited treatments. Our own healers declined in number, many died during the war, or grew too old to practise.”

“There is also a worrying decline in the strength of the gift that the moon goddess bestows on new healers. For centuries we have noticed a gradual decline in our ability to heal, but since the war we fear that the situation has gotten even worse” Diane adds.

“How will we cope if, when another war breaks out?” I ask sombrely.

“I do not know” Simon replies. “We will do our best, but losses will be greater than in the first warif we do n ot have enough healers to heal the wounded….”

“We have been investigating using new healing techniques and inventing equipment which will help heal wolves without the need to employ a true healer, but so far we have not found many that are a good substitute.”

I nod this is something that I need to raise with Joseph and Alex. I must make sure that we are prepared for the next war, not just in terms of fighting and warriors, but by providing the support that our fighters will need, and the most important resource will be healers.