FULL NOVELXO Chapter 98
The small idea of luring the rogues to attack the palace instead of any other pack or somewhere in the capital turned out to be a total success as Micah had been receiving several missives from Alpha Samuel confirming the same.
"The activity of the rogues increased near the borders of the capital compared to the last few times they attacked," Alan reported as he folded his arms across his chest, deep in thought.
Even though the rogues hadn't made an appearance, attacking the people or terrorizing anyone for the past few days, the royal warriors could still find one or two rogues patrolling near the borders recently. Just like those pests did all those times they attacked the areas near the capital city, even though they never harmed a single soul, solely focusing on inflicting fear in the citizens' hearts. The royal warriors had been sending reports how they detected rogues from all around the capital city.
"Tell our warriors to exercise patience and not alert the enemies," Micah said the same thing he had been ordering them to follow since the announcement of the ceremony in the great hall.
Even the missives from Alpha Samuel all contained only information on how they could detect rogues mobilizing from every part of the kingdom and without even investigating further, Micah could cross his heart and swear that they were all heading to the capital city.
Just as he expected, their enemy had reacted strongly upon his decision. The ceremony wouldn't be so peaceful!
The flow of missives increased even more after the confirmation of the ceremony when he announced the fixed date to the public, keeping him preoccupied more than he imagined, and confining him to meetings all day long. He could barely find time to get a shut eye, let alone have a peaceful meal or find Abby in their bedroom to seek the comfort only she could give him.
To make things worse, his royal council wouldn't stop pressuring him that the time was not right for holding the ceremony so abruptly, when they didn't even approve Abby as the future queen of this kingdom. In their hearts, they were all convinced that he was only doing all this to appease his unreasonable mate, for whom also their king had even neglected the safety and well being of the people of this kingdom. Arthur, the former king and his father, filled those thoughts in their minds and they couldn't stop for a second and think even when Micah tried to explain that his decision to conduct the ceremony had nothing to do with her.
Instead, they had been trying to corner him whenever they could find him, giving all the reasons why he shouldn't indulge Abby, who couldn't think of anything else but her own selfish desires.
Upon trying two or three times to stress that even Abby didn't know about the ceremony until he went back to their room after announcing about it in the great hall, Micah gave up and instead started focusing on his preparations to fight those rogues.
However, even on the day of the ceremony, when he was preparing to finally go and collect his mate so that they could go to the great hall together, Micah found out Arthur actually resorted to a new move to make things difficult for him.
"Father, how could you let mother leave her chambers when she had to recuperate properly?" Micah couldn't help but ask Arthur, whom he had come to meet just before going to pick Abby up. "How can you say that, son? Don't you think she would want to get involved in her own son's ceremony?" Arthur told Micah, his gaze and face blank, as if he couldn't tell his son didn't like his idea at all. "But she is still recovering," Micah pointed out.
Even though his mother was living just a building away from the king's tower with his father, Micah didn't think of letting Chapter 98
Abby meet her yet, because she was in poor health.
Even when Arthur mentioned about his own mate formally meeting their son's destined mate, the King didn't think it was a good idea. He only mentioned her mother in passing to Abby as well. Thinking about how his mother had been recuperating in the old tower for the past few years, Micah refused Arthur when he suggested letting his mother get involved in the ceremonial preparations, as it was a public event which was being held on a very huge scale.
However, Arthur couldn't be bothered with any of his concerns as he came with a certain agenda in his mind.
"I understand why you are concerned. But today is such a big day in your life, a milestone if you ask me, so it is only right for her to attend the ceremony," Arthur backed his own actions.
On the other hand, Micah couldn't help but feel his already killing headache worsen even more at his father's persistence to separate him and Abby.
As if he did not create enough trouble for him by instigating the entire palace against his mate, following which he and his fellow councilors had tried all kinds of methods to persuade him to drop Abby as his queen for the last fifteen days, he actually came up with a new move.
Since nothing was working in their favor, his father seemed to have decided to be ruthless until the end, not even considering the fact that the former queen's health condition wasn't really good. "It's not as important as her health," the King bit out at the end, his hands balling into fists.
"No, my son. Meeting your mate is equally important and you have already delayed it enough," Arthur said, knowing fully well Micah couldn't refute him on this.
Yes, he had been delaying their encounter, because he wanted them to meet when everything had calmed down and Abby had adjusted to her life by his side. However, that wasn't the only reason why he was reluctant to let them meet. After all, there was a small problem with his mother.