Ann hadn't slept. Not really.
Every time her eyes closed, she saw the blade flashing again, the way it had caught her sleeve, the spray of gravel when Brad slammed the assassin down. The sheets tangled and the pups in her belly were restless. Maeve's relentless pacing in her head didn't help either.
By morning, her head ached and her patience was already thin.
"You look like shit," Maeve said bluntly as Ann tugged her robe tighter. "No sleep, light blood loss,and a pack of nobles waiting downstairs to pick at your bones. Delightful. Really looking forward to today."
"Good," Ann muttered, scrubbing at her eyes. "Maybe they'll be too distracted by the dark circles to ask stupid questions."
"Ha. Do you really think wrinkles scare them? Please. You could bleed out in front of them and half the room would complain you ruined the carpets."
Ann almost smiled despite herself. "
Helpful, Maeve. Truly."
"I live to serve." she smirked back happily.
By the time she stepped into the council gallery, Coral already had her clipboards ready and a cup of tea shoved into her hand.
"You might want to brace yourself." she grimaced in a way that reminded her of Eva when she had bad news to share, "Half the palace 'happened' to need to be in this hallway today and I'll give you one guess why."
Ann didn't even need to ask.
She could feel Brad before she saw him. He had appeared a few paces behind her, silent and immovable. His presence was a spectacle that the courtiers couldn't seem to stop staring at.
The whispers hit her the very second that she entered the site of the new council chambers whilst their old hall was housing the refugees.
"Can you believe it?! The Queen attacked in her own gardens!! The audacity..".
"Yes but Brad saved her! It was perfect timing..."
"Back at her side, just like before…"
"…perhaps fate restored what politics broke."
"…Ada's not here to mess everything up again, perhaps …don't they look right together?"
"…and Brad's heir? Surely he can be raised in the palace alongside his father, it would smooth things between…"
Ann's jaw clenched tightly and it took everything in her not to roar her fury at each of the simpering halfwits.
Maeve purred with dark amusement.
"Oh, it writes itself. Look at them all, already rewriting history. Completely fucking forget the bit where he dropped his pants for your step-sister and left her with a bastard. Nope. All gone. Just the gallant ex-mate protecting his Queen again. Aren't fairy tales fun?
Ann didn't answer. If she did, the snarl would come out too real.
Lady Maren intercepted her first, pearls glinting, smile sharp.
"Your Majesty," she said, drawing the words out like honey. "How reassuring it must be to have such… reliable protection so near, especially after such a dreadful incident."
Reliable. The way she used that word sickened her.
"Protection is my guard's responsibility," Ann said coolly. "Not Brad's."
"Of course," Maren purred. "And yet…" Her eyes flicked deliberately over her shoulder to where Brad stood, still and silent. "It looks so very familiar. Almost like old times."
Ann didn't flinch. She refused to give Maren the satisfaction.
"Old times end and the past stays where it belongs. In the past." She said firmly, Maeve flashing in her eyes to hammer home the point, "The future stands between me and Alpha Nocturne, not Brad."
Maren's smile twitched. A tiny win at least.
Maeve snickered.
"Ooo, bite down harder, she set herself up for this…I love to see karma in action."
Ann let her gaze slice across the chamber.
"If anyone else is hoping for history to repeat itself, I'll save you the trouble. Brad isn't here for me. He's here because apparently there are knives in the hedges everytime I feel like taking a walk in my own personal gardens and I don't plan on dying politely so that you all can fight over my grave about who gets to sit on the throne next."
That silenced the room. At least for a few breaths.
Coral leaned in, her voice low.
"Nice. That was brutal. I liked it."
"Good," Ann murmured. "I hope they fucking choke on it."
But the whispers didn't stop. They never stopped.
"Look at how he steals glances at her…Brad's wolf never let her go."
"Maybe the bond isn't broken after all…"
"Maybe he can be reinstated as Guardian of the Crown,perhaps? A visible post. People would rally behind that decision, he was always popular…"
"…stability, that's what it looks like. Stability. After all, he's far less volatile than Nocturne…"
Ann forced herself to focus on the business at hand. Reports of new arrivals. Supplies stretched thin. Patrol rotations changed and requests for increases.She moved through the motions while her nobles whispered gossip as if it was the truth.
Every time she paused for breath, Brad was there. A silent shadow at her shoulder, watchful and with his wolf sitting protectively in his gaze.
When the chamber emptied, she finally turned on him.
"You should leave," she said flatly. "Your pack needs you. Your son needs you."
His eyes flickered and there it was, the crack she'd expected. The pain that never quite healed from the rejection.
"He's safe, my mother is taking care of him," Brad said quietly. "He always comes first. But so do you."
"You lost that right," Ann snapped, sharper than she meant to. Her voice rang against the stone, hard enough that Coral froze mid-note-taking. "The day you put Ada in my place, you lost it."
His mouth opened, like he wanted to fight it, to say something, anything. Then it shut again, his jaw clenched as his wolf strained behind his eyes.
Maeve's voice cut through the tension, vicious and smug.
"Good. Let him hear it and wallow in his own self pity... Maybe he can choke alongside the nobles and their poison."
Ann exhaled slowly, forcing her hands flat against the table.
"If you're determined to stay, fine. Stand in the open and look useful but don't for a minute confuse it with being welcome back into my personal space."
Brad inclined his head stiffly.
"Understood."
And still, he didn't leave.
That night, Ann sat alone in her chambers, the palace quieter than she trusted. The windows caught faint torchlight from the courtyards below. Somewhere, the guards changed shift.
Maeve stirred.
"He's not going anywhere. Not until Adam's back."
"I know."
"And the best part?" Maeve sneered. "Every muttering noble out there has already forgotten Ada's and Narcissa's part in trying to enslave the kingdom under a Daemon Lord. They've already smoothed it into a tale of tragic loyalty. Poor Brad, widowed too young by his bride's poor luck in family ties and life choices. Poor Brad, raising a pup alone. Poor Brad, still at the Queen's side."
Her laugh was razor-sharp.
"They don't remember the fucking betrayal and the hurt and the way that Adam held it all together for us. All they care about is the fucking image of tragedy and redemption. Wolves in silk eat that shit in the gossip columns for breakfast."
Ann pressed a hand to her ribs, where the cut tugged painfully and the pups responded..
"Then we remind them," she said quietly. "Every time they look at me, every time they look at him…we remind them who chose what."
Maeve huffed her approval.