1: A SAFE, IGNORANT PRINCESS

[Present day]

Anna walked down the sturdy stairs of the castle in long khaki pants and a crop top, her preferred clothes for gardening. Her dark blond hair was tied up in a messy bun and tendrils of it fell on each side of her face in a pretty way. She held her tiny watering can in her hand, it was the one her father had given her on her last birthday, it was colorful and she loved it so much she had no desire to put it in the gardening supply room, instead, it returned to her room with her every night when the workers were done cleaning it, and returned to the garden with her every morning.

She skipped down the stairs acting like a seven-year-old child, even though she was a young woman very well in her nineteenth year, shouting a cheerful good morning to the women who passed by her with a basket of clothes, obviously going to carry out their share of the morning chores. With every good morning she chimed, she got a smile as a reward, her light gray eyes mesmerizing them and causing a smile to blossom on their faces automatically as they couldn’t help admiring her.

 Anna wasn’t surprised by that, she had always received that look of admiration and worship since she had been a little girl, for this reason, her father didn't let her associate with many people, as he always feared some greedy people would want to covet her for themselves.  She always felt he was being paranoid, but she also always listened to him and only associated with a few, and even those few were his most trusted men.

 She rounded the corner and stepped into the garden her father specifically planted for her, not typically, as she planted and raised every single flower plant there herself, nurturing them as a mother nurtures a child to adulthood. One could say it was her talent, her love for growing things, was said to have been inherited from her mother who she was too young to remember as she died early, but the love they shared was obviously a rare thing among a race like the werewolves that very much had an affinity to violence.

 Unlike her older and only sister, who was always getting involved in matters of the court and its twisted politics, as she had a passion for its mind games just like their father, Anna preferred to stay in the company of her plants, and flowers, away from people, and that made things easier for her father who had always wanted to protect her.

So he gave her a large expanse of land to indulge in her hubby and passion when she was just twelve and true to his exact words, she really had done a great job at indulging. When she was not in the garden taking care of her babies, she would be seen in the library reading a book on the rare plant species there were and how to raise them, or she would be having tea with her father, accompanying him while he went through the many court petitions he was always busy with, thus under her meticulous care, the garden was now one of the most beautiful places in the palace.

 But as beautiful as it was, only members of the king's family were allowed to come in there, and the members of the king's family were just three of them, the king, herself, and her sister. The few people who were close to them and attended court sessions could only admire it and the gardener from the third floor of the castle when they were done with the court session. Even if they wanted to come down and bask in the beauty of the garden, they couldn’t as there was always a guard at the entrance of the garden to make sure no one came in there without permission, but everyone knew for a fact that the thing the king was protecting was not the garden but in fact his youngest daughter who was also the apple of his eyes.

 "Good morning princess Anna." Anna heard her assistant greet her as she walked into the garden and Anna beamed making the girl blush.

 "How are my babies this morning? Did you check them out? Did they eat breakfast yet?" She asked as she dropped her watering can and swept her eyes across the garden with both hands akimbo.

 "Yes they did, princess,” Her assistant replied, used to her manner of speaking about the flowers, “They are doing well, the water lilies at the pond blossomed this morning when I went to check." Her assistant said with a smile and Anna widened her eyes with disbelief and excitement.

 "She woke up?" She exclaimed and hurried toward the pond to see the water lily she had specially planted after convincing her father to make a manmade pond for her in the garden. She had thought it would take a long time before the lily budded but looks like her meticulous care has paid off, even faster than she planned, and it wasn’t just one as she had thought, all of them have bloomed.

 She barely stopped at the edge of the pond, half seating, half laying on the stone pavement that was used to demarcate it as she beamed, the pond was filled with all colors of lilies, white, purple, pink, all the flowers she had planted wondering which one would fare better, but now, they were all in full bloom, and it made her heart warm, as the pond looked so beautiful, she couldn’t wait to bring her father for a walk here to show him.

                                                                    

 Maybe she would ask him to approve the building of a gazebo opposite the pond, so they can come here to relax sometimes and maybe drink tea as they watch the beautiful lilies.

 "Aren’t they beautiful?" Anna said with a dreaminess to her voice.

 "They are indeed, princess. I think it is the perfect farewell gift for you." Her assistant voiced out and Anna nodded with excitement before her face suddenly froze.

 "Farewell?" She asked as she turned to her assistant a little confused, “What farewell? Am I going somewhere?”  She asked with confusion and the assistant equally seemed confused.

 "Did the king change his mind about your marriage?" She asked and Anna widened her eyes before bursting into laughter.

 "What marriage?  Did you hit your head last night and have a weird dream? My father hasn't decided for me to get married. By the way, why should he? My mate would come for me soon. It is not like I am my sister who needs a political marriage to gain power." She said as she admired the flower which was her handwork, but her assistant frowned.

 The princess was right indeed, due to Clare’s love for politics and being at the forefront of the political matters in the court, she had chosen and mated one of the young promising men from her father’s court, who she believed could help her gain an upper hand in court and had indeed gained the upper hand, and her father had made no move to stop her.

Clare was a politically inclined woman by nature, she accepted things like violence and verbal warfare like they were her birthright, and had been following her father to court since she was a child. Even when she was too young to attend she had hidden behind the curtains and listened in on the court matters and won everyone’s trust and admiration from a young age. Since she was a werewolf princess, as royalty, she had the right to choose her own mate, no matter who she desires, even if she wants to abandon or reject her fated mate.

 But Anna was different, she was the dreamy one, she was the one who read the human fairy tales and werewolf mate tales, also she had no business with the court or the succession of the throne, she didn't need a strong man to protect her, all she cared about was her flowers and everyone understood that she intends to wait for her proposed mate, as she also wanted to live a life long fairy tale romance, like the ones she had seen in the books she had read. Not that she even had a choice if she wanted something different as very few male wolves have seen or met her.

 In fact, very few knew that the werewolf king Herman, had a daughter other than the seductive and manipulative Clare, as her father has always had her protected since she was a child and hidden from the face of the public. Now that the king had suddenly changed his mind and had gifted her marriage, not just any marriage but a political one, those who knew them closely and their situation were shocked, as no one understood why he suddenly did that, while the vast majority who have heard of her were confused as they wondered who this daughter of the king was

 Wasn't the daughter they all knew already mated?

 From what her assistant saw, it seemed even the princess in question was still uninformed of her arranged marriage when the news itself had already spread like wildfire and had caused an uproar throughout the realm.

 "Is it that the king hasn't informed you yet?" The assistant asked her with guilt. If the king hadn't told the princess yet, wouldn't she be in trouble for disclosing the matter to her first?

 Anna, who had been resting her hands on the white stone of the pond and bending over it, straightened a little and looked at her assistant with a serious face.

 "You are not joking?" She asked and the assistant shook her head.

 "The king announced it yesterday morning at the court, the entire realm and capital were still in uproar as a result of it. How can you not have heard?”

 "That is not possible,” Anna said as she looked at the boots on her feet lost in thought, she had lunch, tea, and dinner with her father and even her sister yesterday but neither of them had said anything, though her sister did give her weird looks, but was there a time when she didn’t.

 Her sister always thought she was stupid for devoting so much time to something with a life span that was so short, she believed it is a waste of useful time, so when she had given her that look yesterday night at dinner, she had thought that was what it was about. Coincidentally, she had also been talking about plants and flowers at the dinner, while asking her father to buy her more books for the library, as she had almost read the ones there, he had smiled and said he would.

If he was marrying her off, would he make such a promise? Worse still they had breakfast together this morning, all four of them, with her sister’s mate, and there was no information still, so how could …

No, it was impossible.

“Father wouldn't make such a decision without telling me...?” Anna said, then laughed, “By the way, who could he even possibly marry me to? I am of no use to whosoever it is, as I do not do or understand politics." Anna asked with confusion.

 "Alpha Myron." The assistant told her and she frowned.

 "Who is that?" Anna asked and the assistant was stunned.

 The princess doesn't know who Alpha Myron was? Sure enough, she wouldn’t. The princess was someone who had lived in the palace all her life and had enjoyed all the luxury of wealth it had to offer but was unable to go out to see the world like a princess locked up in a castle.

Even if she did know Alpha Myron, she doubted that she would be mesmerized by him as they common women were, who among the common women haven’t heard of Alpha Myron in the entire realm, which of them haven’t prayed in their hearts and hoped that they were his true mate. The true mate of the Alpha of the strongest warrior pack, a man with no ambition other than protecting his pack.

Was there any man more capable than that? But of course, even if the princess had heard of him, she doubted if she would even like him, princess Anna wasn’t a fan of violence, and avoided it like a plague, thus she would certainly not want a violent man like Alpha Myron.

 But fate was cruel, the princess who always got the best, and lived the life she wanted, was now going to be thrown into an entirely different world, the assistant thought and shook her head in pity as she stared at Anna who was lost in her own thoughts.

 It was too bad Alpha Myron had no ambition, if he was an ambitious one, wouldn’t he have been the princess’ brother-in-law by now, if that had happened, maybe the princess would have been able to avoid this fate, the assistant thought and sighed, but of course, she wasn’t even sure the princess was informed about that.

 The princess was a good person, her assistant couldn’t help but wonder how she would cope especially when she was going to a warrior pack that only acknowledged the strong and ridiculed the weak. A thing like planting flowers could not exist there.

She sighed

 "Princess..."

 "You know what, never mind. I am going to see my father and clear up this misunderstanding." Anna said and stormed off.