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Chapter 9 - The Masque
Last Updated:
2023-09-16 01:10:04
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The Alpha Queen's Deadly Secret Chapter 10 - First Encounter
**Midwinter, Five and a Half Years Ago**“My queen,” Auden says, bowing low to the girl he barely knows standing before him on the dais. He lets out a long breath as he holds the bow, staring at the floor, willing himself to hold himself together and be civil to this woman who took his mother’s place. It wasn’t her fault, after all.When Auden straightens, he sees a warm smile on Angeline’s face, her hands outstretched towards him.“Hey, Auden,” she says, her voice soft. “Welcome home.”And something shifts in the prince as he looks at the girl standing before him, her face open to him and full of empathy. He had thought that he’d have nothing but bitter resentment for Angeline for the rest of his life - had been fully prepared for that, even.But as she stands there in front of him, her arms outstretched, a hesitant smile starting on her face, Auden’s mouth curls upwards at one corner. Damn it, but he can’t help but like her. Just a little bit.Auden takes a few steps forward, raisin
Last Updated : 2023-09-16The Alpha Queen's Deadly Secret Chapter 11 - Back in the Cottage
I lean against the threshold of my front door as I watch Auden kneel in front of Vivi, who glares at him, and Niall, who looks at this gigantic Alpha with wide and worried eyes. Niall tucks himself behind Vivi a little, hiding behind her courage. “Are you really a prince,” Vivi asks, narrowing her eyes at Auden and looking him up and down, her little blue dragon sleeping across her shoulder. “Don’t I look like a prince?” Auden asks, cocking his head to look at his daughter curiously. “No,” she replies instantly, making him laugh. “What about me doesn’t seem prince-like?” he asks, and I come into the room, shutting the door behind me. My gaze flashes to Anna in the kitchen while Vivi considers Auden for a moment longer, and I quickly shake my head at Anna, asking her not to say a word. Anna nods a quick assent. “You are too tall,” Vivi decides. “And dirty. And you have no crown.” Auden laughs again, a warm sound that surprises me
Last Updated : 2023-09-17The Alpha Queen's Deadly Secret Chapter 12 - Return to the Palace
My stomach twists with anxiety as our three horses approach the palace. The sun is almost fully risen, which means that soon the palace will wake up - that Mahl will wake up and have the chance to notice that I’m gone. “Can we go any faster?” I murmur, glancing over my shoulder for probably the hundredth time even though I’m fully aware that there’s no one behind me except Auden’s guard, Richard. Richard doesn’t take his eyes off the road ahead of us, but I know he’s watching my every move – that he’s been ordered to, just in case I’m stupid enough to try and run again. “If we go any faster,” Auden replies tightly under his breath, “we’ll draw attention to ourselves.” I know he’s right – and I know he’s frustrated because he’s already explained that to me twice before. Our goal right now is to look like an everyday Alpha and Luna heading to the palace with their guard for the continued festivities. They’ve dressed me for the part, too, in an elegant
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King Mahl stands glaring at us, his whole body tensed with the effort of not transforming into his wolf and leaping at us. I feel my breath come short in my chest, terrified despite Auden’s assurance that he will quickly get this under control.Mahl’s eyes are fixed on me and I can see the threat in the steady flame burning there, the tension in each of his muscles. He immediately suspects betrayal and he’s ready to make me pay for it, no questions asked.That’s how Mahl rules, after all: by making sure that everyone knows that he can rip those who betray him to shreds and that he’s ready to do it at the barest whiff of disloyalty.The threat feels very real to me as we stop our horses a few feet from the King and Auden swings his leg over his horse’s saddle, dropping easily to the ground. Auden turns to Mahl, taking his horse’s bridle in his hand and giving the King a short bow. “Father,”
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Mahl walks me steadily to the door of the Queen’s apartments in silence.“I’m afraid I gave your sister a bit of a scare this morning,” he informs me, making me jump even though he keeps his voice low. But then, realizing what he said, I snap my face up to his, surprised. Honestly, I’d forgotten all about poor Calli – my mind was on other problems.“Is – is she all right?” I ask, hesitant.“She is fine,” Mahl replies, nodding and coming to a stop outside the door. “I do not appreciate being lied to though, wife. Or you asking your family members to lie in your stead.”“It was Auden’s idea,” I say quickly, throwing him under the horse’s cart a bit but willing to let him take the blame. “He didn’t want to worry you in the night – if you…if you came to visit me. She was to tell you I was ill.”Auden told me, of
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The peaceful silence of the King’s chamber grates on Auden’s nerves as he leans against the windowsill, staring at the door. He knows it’s going to burst open at any moment and he’s not looking forward to it.Still. He wants to get this done so he can move on with his day. Auden clenches his jaw as he lets his mind wander, just a little, to the thousand things he has left to do. There’s so much to organize before this evening’s ridiculous garden party - so much he has to get exactly, precisely right -God, Auden thinks, shaking his head and not taking his eyes off the door in front of him. What the hell was I thinking, getting myself wrapped up in this? Auden scowls, because of course he knows the answer. A woman doesn’t deserve to die, orphaning her children and sparking a feud with her family, just because she had very temporary (and very valid) hesitation about the King’s choice to claim her as his next bride.After all, Auden considers, it’s not like Mahl asked Everleigh what
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Auden holds his breath, hoping that his little gamble here has paid off – that Margot did as she promised and successfully distracted Mahl last night. He hadn’t had time to receive any reports from his men, or speak to Margot herself, but…When Mahl turns away, a little scowl on his face, Auden’s smirk deepens.Mahl begins to pace the room and Auden waits for his father to pull his thoughts together and plan his next move. Would he continue to berate his son for some tiny, innocuous lies? Or would he move on?As Auden waits for Mahl to decide, his mind wanders despite his determination to concentrate on the situation at hand. There’s just so much he has to do. Where are the children now? Time is getting short – the cart will arrive soon if it hasn’t already, and he wanted to be there when it did –“Enough of this,” the King snaps. Auden raises his head again to meet his father’s eyes, pleased that the King has finally decided to weigh this in his favor. “You will keep no more secrets
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I’m late to the garden party, which means that by the time I get there I can barely see the garden itself, so full is it with pressing bodies. I don’t enter the gardens through the ballroom as I did last night, but instead via the more intimate and discrete Royal entrance, which opens out into a wide square clearing surrounded by benches. A delicate fountain sprays in the middle of the clearing, though I can only see the top spout of the water right now.I’ve been here before, of course – but it’s unrecognizable as the quaint and peaceful courtyard it usually is, instead now packed and humming with conversation. My eyes go immediately to Mahl, standing above the crowd across the courtyard on the painted wooden dais constructed for these sorts of events.I sigh, knowing I have to get to his side and realizing that getting there means I have to run the courtier gauntlet.As soon as I step from the entrance, eyes turn to me and a thousand different expressions cross people’s faces. Some
Last Updated : 2023-10-03
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“Oh, my apologies for the profligate waste of your youth,” I return, rolling my eyes at her.“Thank you,” she says, nodding sharply.Niall hesitates, glancing back at the books, clearly liking the homework and not wanting to let Vivi know.I sigh, glancing at Auden and then back at the kids. “All right, all right,” I say, shooing them back toward the fire. “If your instructor wants you to do it you’d better listen.”They both turn – Niall pausing to give me another hug before he darts back to the books and Coco. Coco nudges Vivi’s page, looking at it curiously and wanting it turned, almost as if he’s reading along with her.“What do you think about this?” I murmur, frowning and leaning closer to Auden as I watch my children turn their focus on what looks like quite large and serious set of books for two small children on their first week of school. “Is this really the best –““Everleigh.”The words fade from my lips as I turn my face up to his. I’m proud of myself for going only a lit
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“That little bag of powders and potions is an arsenal in the right hands,” Margot says with a sigh, rolling her eyes a bit. “But whatever, Everleigh, you’re the Queen and you get to do whatever you want -”“Margot.” My voice is solid as I stop my horse, reaching for her and wrapping my hand around her wrist. She stops her horse too, turning to me in the saddle, curious but wary. “I have nothing,” I whisper. “Nothing in this world to protect me – Mahl has taken it all away. Except for gold and jewels. And it might seem like that is a resource – but Mahl has largely closed my lines of contact so that even if I have gold at my fingertips I have nowhere to spend it. So if I can trade a bit of that, and better your mother’s life, and build myself a tiny arsenal of minor spells that maybe – maybe I can begin to use to protect myself…would you really deny me that?”Margot’s shoulders slump as she looks at me, a sad frown taking her lips. Then she shakes her head. “No, Everleigh. I’m sorry. I
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“Whatever my rich old Alpha wants,” Margot says with a happy sigh. I shift my stare to my friend, my hands wrapped around my cup, because…Honestly, I’ve never heard her say before that she expected to marry. And an Alpha? I mean, it’s not completely unheard of – there are stories of Alphas who as a last act of defiance to their greedy families take a low-born wife far too young and pretty for them.But is that really Margot’s plan?She grins at me, perhaps seeing me put it all together, and gives a saucy wink – letting me know that it is.But Mindy lets out a wolfish little growl, shaking her head. “You need more than that, girl. Your potential –““Is fine,” Margot says, rolling her eyes. “Let me live my life, mother.”“I wish you’d listen to me.”“I wish you’d listen to me.
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“Oh my god,” I whisper, leaning across the table to get a better look at Margot’s mother’s face. She grins at me again, showing a set of straight white teeth. “You’re…you’re the woman, from the cart…”She laughs, her eyes crinkling in the corners, blending in with the wrinkles that otherwise crease her face. “The woman from the cart – yes, my finest moniker, the name my mother dreamed I would bear –“I laugh a little, sitting back, my cheeks flushing – because that was rude – but Margot laughs too, harder than me, and a glance at her happy face lets me know that it’s all right – I haven’t truly offended anyone.My friend looks between me and her mother, interested. “Wait, so really? My surprise introduction isn’t so much of a surprise?”“You tell her,” the woman says, gesturing to Margot a
The Alpha Queen's Deadly Secret Chapter 104 - Recognition
My eyebrows raise as a rough little laugh sounds, echoing around the grove as my horse walks away from me, revealing a very small grey-haired woman standing before her door, her hand fisted on her hips. I blink for a second because…do I…But a wide grin stretches her features as she looks me up and down, disrupting the thought. “So,” she says, quite cheerful. “Are you one of my fancy daughter’s fancy friends?”I laugh and dip into a little curtsy. “I suppose I am.”The woman steps closer to me – peering up into my face. I am not particularly tall but she is particularly short. One corner of my mind considers that Margot’s father must have been a giant to get a daughter so tall –But there’s no time to think about that as the woman steps forward, sniffing the air, reaching for me. “Hands, please,” the woman orders, her own held out palm up. I barely hesitate before slipping my hands against hers, but she hastily turns them over and brings her face close, studying my palms. “I see, I se
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I push back the hood of my cloak a little, looking around the shady grove into which we ride.“Just ahead!” Margot says, laughing a little, clearly pleased to be home.But…home.God, I knew Margot came from humble beginnings but I didn’t think she honestly lived in the wilderness like this. Everything around us is just wild - woods and trees – a pretty brook with waters tumbling over its rocks in a lively, cheerful way – sunlight falling through the leaves and dappling the floor. Not a sign of civilization anywhere – not even a road leading to this little clearing.But it’s…beautiful.Honestly nearly the entire ride here I've just been worrying so much about Auden - what to do, how to fix this - but now that we're here -God, all I can do is just...stare at the beauty all around.As I nudge my horse further forward, following Margot’s own mare, I wonder if I would have liked to have grown up in a place like this. Such freedom but also such…boredom. I don’t think I would have made it w
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I lean towards her, studying her face. “I’ve never even heard of something like that – a substance that makes you able to sleep and dream so vividly – and then to share dreams. It’s like something out of a fairy tale!”“Just like me!” she says, fluffing her hair and giving me a smug, joking smile before she laughs. I laugh too, unable to help it. But then she leans towards me, her face sweet and a little conspiratorial. “Look, Everleigh…Mahl forbid little tricks like this years ago, but that doesn’t mean that everyone stopped using them. And the women in my family have been doing this sort of thing for years – we didn’t just give it up because some big bully king told us to.”My eyes widen as I realize what Margot is truly telling me – that she comes from a tradition of magic users and makers – the sorts of women whom Mahl would mark as witches an
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“Wasn’t I clear about what the cakes make possible, besides vivid dreams?” Margot asks quietly, grimacing and crossing her arms over her chest. “Darling, how did you think I knew what Mahl was dreaming about every night?”I gape at her. “He…he didn’t just tell you in the morning?”“Oh, baby,” Margot says, sighing and reaching for me, pulling me into her arms and giving me a big hug, rocking me back and forth as she shakes her head. “You think Mahl wakes up and tells his concubine all about his good dreams? Sugar…” She grimaces again.I groan, ducking my head against her shoulder. Because of course. Of course he’s not that kind of man. God, what was I thinking?“What happened?” Margot asks, her voice all soft and comforting as I go to absolute emotional pieces with my face pressed to her shoulder. “W
The Alpha Queen's Deadly Secret Chapter 100 - Sharing Cake
I wince as I slam the glass door to the roof garden shut behind me, leaning against it even as I hope to hell that it doesn’t shatter. But it holds – of course it holds – it’s survived so much more than me having a panic attack –I press my eyes shut, trying desperately to run through all of the events of the morning, but they all blur together.First the way Auden turned to me when I came through the window, the fucking hunger in his eyes –And then how I noticed his shoulder – followed by those words – Where had they come from? Why did I say that – basically quote dream-Auden to real-Auden’s face!?And his expression – the absolute shock in his eyes, the recognition before Vivi asked us what was wrong and we both sprung into action, neither of us looking each other in the eye again before we got the kids bustl
