Forbidden Queen

Katy

The next morning, I feel slightly better, but I am not sure if I will ever stop feeling guilty for causing the death of Anthony. If only I hadn’t insisted on going into town. Everyone had warned me that it was a stupid idea, that it would be dangerous, but I wouldn’t listen. Now someone was dead.

Alex has been wonderful; he hasn’t left my side. He spent the night trying to comfort me and keeps telling me that I am not to blame. That it is the traitor who shared our plans with Lucius who is responsible for the warrior’s death. If they hadn’t attacked me when we were in the town, they would have found another time and place, and the losses could have been worse.

He thinks that it is a positive development that we know there is a traitor in the royal household and that we have managed to narrow down to a short list the potential culprits. I do feel unnerved by the fact that one of my advisors who I have begun to think of as friends is ready to betray me. Is plotting with Lucius to kill me. The sooner we can identify who they are the better I will feel.

Alex and I are meeting Joseph this morning after breakfast to flesh out the details of our plan. The real reason for our meeting will be kept secret. Instead, we have told everyone that we are going to discuss the hunt for the wolves who attacked me.

Joseph is telling people that we suspect Lucius has a network of spies in the capital which we think is how his warriors were able to attack us. We hope that this story, which is probably partially true, will be enough to reassure the spy that we are not aware of their existence. We want them to feel safe, so they are not suspicious when we take them down.

Alex and I grab a quick breakfast, before meeting Joseph in my office.

When we arrive he is already there. It looks like he has been here for a while. He is sitting reading through documents, there is a pile of folders spread out on the desk in front of him.

“I have been doing some investigations into the backgrounds of each of the senior advisors. They were checked, as were all household staff, after your parents’ deaths for any links to Lucius. Nothing untoward was found. However, we had little to go on at the time, there were too many potential suspects. Now that we have narrowed the field, I thought it would be a good idea to review their files and arrange for further investigations to be carried out into their backgrounds. Discreetly of course. We don’t want to alert them to what we are doing.”

“What have you found out so far?” Alex asks, picking up and opening one of the folders that are lying on the desk.

“None of them have clear links to Lucius’ pack, if they had we would have uncovered them when we carried out our investigations eighteen years ago. But there are a couple of potential leads.

Ruth spent a year as an ambassador to the Black Moon Pack twenty-five years ago. We had been concerned about the pack for some time. From the start of Lucius’ time as Alpha he had always acted aggressively, and we knew that he was very ambitious. It was felt that sending an ambassador would improve relations and allow us to keep a closer eye on him.”

“And while she was there Lucius could have recruited her. Alex surmises.

“Yes, it is possible. He can be persuasive.”

“Aaron has never been sent to the Black Moon Pack, and we are unaware of him having any direct link to Lucius, but one of his cousins is a member of the pack. They mated a Black Moon Warrior twenty years ago. There is no indication that he is particularly close to this cousin, but we should investigate them further.

“Karen has never been sent to the Black Moon Pack on official business, nor are we aware of any other links. She has no family, she was found as a teenager close to one of the northern border villages, her family had been killed in an ambush by the Black Moon Pack before the war started. She should be the last person to help Lucius, but I think we should still check out her background we can’t trust afford to take any chances.”

“Agreed” I say. “I don’t think we can discount anyone. Hopefully your investigations will provide us with concrete evidence pinpointing who the traitor is, in the meantime we should still lay a trap to flush them out. That remains our best chance of getting incontrovertible proof.”

“I think their first instinct after the failure of the ambush yesterday will be to lay low for a while. We need to give them an opportunity that will look to good to miss, and the only way to do that will be to use me as the bait. If they think there is an opportunity to capture or kill me, a situation where I will not be heavily guarded then they are more likely to make another attempt.”

“No, yesterday was bad enough, we need to protect you from Lucius, not give him another opportunity to kill you. We might not be able to protect you next time” Alex protests.

I smile and squeeze his hand I love how protective he is of me, but I am not going to let him spoil our best chance of catching the traitor. “We have no option. We can’t let them remain free working against us. We have to take a risk in order to capture them as quickly as possible.”

“I agree, the only way to find them will be to use Katy as bait” Joseph says.

I am surprised that he agrees with me, but with his support Alex is forced to back down.

“Fine, but we need to make sure that she is surrounded by an army of trained guards to protect her. They can’t be given a chance to kill or capture her.”

“Of course, we cannot be reckless with our queen’s life.”

“Now that that is cleared up let’s get down to discussing the best way to use me as bait.”

“It will need to be when you are away from the palace. The palace is too well protected for Lucius to attempt to launch an attack here” Joseph tells us.

“I think we should try and link it to something that you already have planned that will be less likely to arouse suspicion” Alex says.

“What about my proposed visits to the Royal Betas? We have agreed with them that I would arrange a visit to their territories soon. We could also say that the recent attack has left me traumatised, and I need a change of scene.”

“Yes, that would work. We can let your council know that that the plans for the journey are going to be kept secret because we are increasing your security after the attack. We will find opportunities to speak to each of the advisors separately, and we can accidentally let slip key information about the route the journey will take. There are several different ways of travelling to the north territory, so we can tell each of them a different one.

We will have you leave the castle with a party of warriors, and then we will send decoy parties to travel north via each of the three chosen routes. You can double back to the royal guards’ quarters where we can keep you safe. While the three groups will journey to the north. Whichever one that the Black Moon Pack attack, will tell us which advisor has betrayed you.”

“NO. I will be there. I am not letting people risk their lives while I hide away in safety.”

“But…” Alex tries to say before I cut him.

“I know you are only trying to shield me from danger, but I won’t hide again.”

“OK” he says grudgingly.

“There is something I need to tell you both” Joseph says changing the subject. “It is unpleasant. Your brother has been travelling around the neutral packs. He…., he is telling people that it was you who killed your father, because you wanted to be the Alpha. That you are using your new position and your mate bond with Katy to gather forces strong enough to take over all the packs by force.”

“WHAT!” Alex snarls. “Do they believe him?”

“I don’t think he has won anyone over yet. The truth is more plausible, they know that Lucius has tried to do similar things in other packs, but because he is your brother, the son of the Alpha they are wary.”

“We need to stop him. I can’t believe that after what he did, helping Carl to kill my father and trying to take over the pack for Lucius, he is now blaming me.”

I grab his hand and squeeze it gently. “He is desperate, and weak, but we can get senior wolves from the Lunar Eclipse pack to spread the true story.”

“And we should try to capture him” Joseph adds.

“He needs to stand trial for what he did to my father and what he tried to do to our pack.”

“I will get my spies to monitor his movements, if he comes anywhere near our territory, we will send a squad to kidnap him and bring him back.”