AVAWhen we arrived, Jeremiah opened the door for the Kings to get out first. I could feel the discomfort pouring off them, especially off Theo as the crowd all dropped to one knee.Once they were out, Michael took my hand, helping me step out of the car, before bowing and kissing the back of my hand.“My Queen, my Kings,” his voice was strong, confident, and loud enough that the crowds would have heard him. “I’m delighted you could all join us. I’m sure you could all use a little break following the drive, if you all follow me to the drawing room, where I’ve had afternoon tea arranged for you all.”“Thank you, Michael,” I smiled, taking his offered arm.My four Kings all felt unbelievably nervous, but Theo was easily the worst of the lot.“Theo, you’ve got this,” I attempted to reassure him through our mate link. “I love you and the Kingdom will love you too.”“Thank you, Ava,” he replied, and the uncertainty in his voice broke my heart.We all took our seats in the drawing room, wit
AVATheo and Noah were insatiable to the point that I ended up having to rush to get ready for the dinner in less than half an hour. But… It was still an event I would rather not attend.The butt-hurt looks on some of the faces of the ministers when my Kings and I entered the dining room reinforced those reasons through and through, and those faces only got worse when they all had to stand to bow for us and couldn’t sit until I did. Just out of spite, I made a point of insisting on each of my Kings sitting down first, before I really took my time about the matter.The smirks my Kings were trying (and failing) to hide said they had worked out exactly what I was doing.As soon as I sat, the ministers and ranked pack members followed suit, and staff immediately started moving through the room filling wine glasses.Michael looked in my direction, a question showing on his face. I nodded to him, knowing fully well what he was about to announce.“My Queen, My Kings, Lords, Ladies and estee
AVAThe last thing I wanted to do the morning after an incredibly uncomfortable dinner was to delve into my history and that of my predecessors’ history with Michael, but apparently I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.After a breakfast of croissants, fruit, salmon and cheeses, the five of us made our way to Michael’s office. I stopped in the doorway having noticed the mountain of books on Michael’s desk. They really had been busy…“Please, sit, my Queen, my Kings,” Michael gave a small smile as he motioned for us all to sit around the table. “What do you have for us, Michael?” I jumped straight into it. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this forthcoming history lesson… gut feeling said it would be uncomfortable, to put it politely.“I’ll start from the beginning, my Queen, with the prophecy. We’ve discovered that the prophecy we all know today isn’t the original version, it changed a few centuries ago. The original prophecy is very vague about the number of mates that the Alph
AVAAfter that delightful history lesson, I really needed to unwind, and fortunately, the perfect opportunity came in the form of Theo.We never got to have time alone before when we marked each other like I did with the others, and that was something I wanted to make up for.That evening, we left Noah, Callum and Oscar to have a few drinks and relax, and we headed out into the meadow with a picnic in tow. Of course we had a full Queen’s Guard with us, so we’d never be truly alone… but at least Jeremiah and the others would be discreet, as far away as possible without compromising my safety, and wouldn’t even consider running around telling everyone what they see me getting up to.Theo spread out a beautiful, fluffy picnic blanket when we reached the clearing, finding another ready to pull over us if we got chilly.It was a clear night, fortunately, because the plan was to watch the stars. A meteor shower was predicted, and watching that would be the perfect date night for Theo and I.
AVAI was still floating on a post-orgasm cloud the next morning to the point that I was practically bouncing as I walked. Theo and I needed that time together last night, and badly.“You’re in a good mood this morning, Theo,” Noah smirked when we all sat down for breakfast in the private dining room in our suite. I’d insisted on a room being set up so the five of us could eat in private if we so desired, and Michael had more than delivered on that.Theo pressed a kiss to my forehead, grinning at Noah. I shook my head at the pair of them, unable to stop the smile spreading across my face, before walking around the table, saying good morning to and giving each of the others a kiss. When I reached Oscar, he wrapped his arms around my waist, tugging me into his lap so I straddled him where he sat. This is why when we chose chairs, the boys all insisted on ones without arms.“Good morning, little one,” he whispered against my ear, his breath sending a shiver do
AVAI did not want to get up the next morning.Saturday had come around too quickly, which meant tonight, the five of us would be paraded around in front of all of Eclipse Mountain, the leaders of every pack and since it was our home pack, most of Blood Moon.I was not looking forward to this, and my nervousness was bleeding through the matelink to my Kings.For once, I agreed to have someone do my hair and makeup for me. Not for appearances, but more because I have a habit of getting a bit… red faced if I’m angry, and there will be a lot of people that will get on my bad side, especially since the fact I stripped Minister Byron of his position and locked him up pending trial.Of course, there was also the concern that my Kings
AVA Just about within the two hour deadline, I was ready, courtesy of my makeup artist. She’d even managed to tame my hair into tidy curls and used a lot of hair pins to keep the curls bunched on the back of my head (excluding a couple she let frame my face), and keep the crown in place too. The boys hadn’t seen me getting ready, I’d been in my dressing room the entire time. When I walked out finally, they all stopped to stare at me, mouths open. I’d picked a dark green dress that had a lace bodice and glitter detail in emerald green to match the crown. It was a floor length Princess-style gown so you couldn’t see the stunning black heels I’d chosen, but I knew they were there. My mum was the first to react, running over and pulling me into a hug, tears in her eyes. “You look so beautiful, Ava,” she wept. “You look every bit the future Queen tonight.” I smiled against her hair, before kissing her forehead. By that point, everyone else had reacted, and both Amy and Izzie had joi
CALLUMI was beyond grateful that I didn’t have to give a speech.Ava didn’t even expect us to stand behind her, she knew the four of us were really uncomfortable with the whole thing. As soon as Michael finished his speech and Ava stepped forwards to give hers, the faces of the crowd were… varied. A lot of people were looking forward to hearing what she had to say, but there were definitely a few that still weren’t best impressed that she would be taking the throne.And those faces that already weren’t happy looked like they’d been slapped when she announced some of the laws she was planning to revoke to better protect young girls who were in similar situations to the one she was in, but didn’t have the chance to get out of it.The younger audience