The palace felt colder after their fight.
Where Adam's presence had once filled every corner, now there was only absence, heavy as stone.
Ann moved through the halls wearing her practiced mask. Her performance as Queen was so flawless it could've won awards, but every step ached.
The nobles fed on performances like vultures. They savored every scrap of gossip, dissected every look, every pause...anything they could twist into leverage.
They'd smelled the crack between her and Adam like wolves scenting blood. And they didn't hold back.
"She doesn't even dine with him anymore."
"I heard he stormed out of her chambers."
"If even her consort won't stand at her side, how can she hold the rest of us together?"
She let it wash over her. Never flinching. Never turning her head. Never giving them the satisfaction. Inside, though, every whisper scraped across the raw wound Adam had left when he slammed those doors behind him.
You wanted a mate with teeth, Maeve muttered, low and amused. Well, congratulations. He just bared them at you.
Ann's fingers twitched at her side.
"Not helpful."
"I wasn't trying to be. I was celebrating. Our mate finally spoke his mind. If he's strong enough to handle a kingdom, he'd better learn how to handle his feelings too."
Ann didn't answer. If she let herself think about the fight...about his fury, about her refusal to bend...she'd unravel. And she didn't have that luxury. Every noble here was circling, waiting for a crack they could use.
She knew it must burn, going from Alpha with the final word to consort who didn't. But nothing about that would change.
So she buried herself in duty.
Mornings with Coral were spent grinding through supply ledgers until the numbers blurred. She never showed the strain in front of witnesses.
Afternoons with Eva, walking the outer camps, listening as refugees spat complaints and pleas in the same breath. She softened when she had to, snapped sharp when they pushed too far.
Evenings were for holding court, surrounded by nobles who circled like sharks, testing her edges with their endless parade of petty grievances.
And every night ended the same, with bone-deep exhaustion and a silence that chewed through her chest.
The Lycans rallied tighter around her, filling the void that Adam had left. Their discipline and patience spoke louder than anything she could have said in their defense. They took the slurs, the spit, the suspicion, and stayed steady.
Until the morning that a stone hit a young she-wolf in the brow. Even as blood trickled down her face, her family didn't snarl and didn't strike back. They just closed ranks around her, stood straighter, and waited.
Ann stepped forward with a rage building inside of her. This was not the kind of behaviour she wanted to see so openly in her kingdom.
She felt the crowd's eyes, a mix of doubt and disgust and for one second Adam's absence hit her like a blade. Then she saw the girl...blood trailing down her cheek, and chin lifted...and the words that she wanted to speak came to her clearly, although she couldnt hold back the sneer of disgust that pulled at her lips.
"Look at you all!" she began coldly, letting them feel her displeasure, "You call them beasts, but it's one of yours that threw the stone and injured a child, a child, for Goddess sake, and they didn't strike back."
Ann allowed her eyes to drift across the crowd communicating her displeasure clearly with a single look and Maeve's confidence flashing in her eyes.,
"A wolf who takes a hit and still stands taller without reacting rashly is worth at least ten of you cowards who hide behind their hatred and throw rocks. This is what fear does to you. It makes you small, cruel, and blind. If you can't see their strength, I will continue to praise it openly, and until you open your eyes, as your Queen, I will stand in front of them willingly and be their shield."
The Lycan she-wolf bowed her head as blood streaked her cheek like war paint and Ann could feel the shift as the Lycans truly felt her as a leader that they believed in, not just one that they pledged to. They saw her actions, heard her words, and believed them.
Maeve snorted.
"You're collecting them one stray at a time, Ann. You're going to build an army of outcasts and corpses. I hope you know how to keep them fed.
"I don't see any corpses here MAeve." Ann hissed back, "Only people that need help, and to be seen and heard."
"They may as well be corpses for all the good they'll do when the Lycan King decides to attack openly."
"Oh will you pipe down?" Ann scoffed, "You sound as bad as Adam."
"That's because I think Adam is right…he's just going about it the wrong way. We do need to move. We need to act. And the sooner it happens the better, but I also think that you are right. We need to approach it cautiously…especially with these refugees seeking shelter here. They will be the ones most at risk when the attack finally comes."
"I know," Ann thought. "And they all know I'll bleed for them before I make decisions that will put them in unnecessary risk.".
"Mmm, " Maeve hummed thoughtfully, "Do you think it's too much to ask Coral for another puppachino? Oooo, or maybe Eva…with a side of venison.."
"Maeve! This is serious!"
"Yah, I know, but it's always serious with you and seeing as how nothing is changing quickly, I feel like there's time for me to eat…"
"Maeve.."
"Shut up Ann."
Ann snorted in disbelief as Maeve curled around herself sulkily muttering about starving to death before the pups arrived and pulled herself away from the conversation.
As the crowd dispersed around her she could see clearly that the refugees weren't convinced at all.
The humans, half-wolves…the survivors of Ely's attacks…they shrank back when Lycans passed too close. They whispered that Ann was trading their safety for monsters, laying with the devil to allow her to keep her crown without caring about the consequences for her people. They muttered taht the Lycan King's wrath would fall faster on them because of her choice to accept what they called exiles, and outcasts and fugitives.
Their respect warred with resentment, all of it fuelled by rumours. She saw it in every camp...some eyes lit with fragile hope, others dark with suspicion so it wasn't just isolated whispers.
Adam's absence at her side only made it worse. Without his wolf looming over every confrontation, the small sparks and provocations kept flying.
A shove at the water line, a muttered insult near the kitchens, a fist raised and lowered when the Lycans refused to retaliate.
Each confrontation landed on Ann's shoulders and each one brought her closer to despair. These were her people, and she wanted the best for them.
"You won't ever be able to please everyone," Maeve rumbled sleepily, "And if you try to then you'll lose what makes you a good Queen in the first place. You should always stay true to what you think is right…well..what I think is right. Your judgement is shockingly bad on the best of days."
"Shut up Maeve." Ann sighed as Maeve sniggered.
And through it all, Adam stayed away. He wasn't gone completely, but it was obvious that he was avoiding her and burying himself in work at the new Dark Moon settlement on the edge of their lands.
Coral brought reports daily of the fortifications that were being constructed, how the training was being rolled out among willing participants with the refugees, and supplies were being stockpiled to account for the extra mouths to feed.
He was still doing as expected of him, as the Queen's Consort…as her mate, but he wasn't doing it beside her.
By the fourth night, when she finally collapsed at her desk, the ache was too much to ignore and she pressed her face into her hands.
Maeve slid in instantly.
"You're breaking. Admit it."
" I can't."
"But you are, Ann. You need help."
"I won't break where they can see, and I won't ask him to return unless he can accept that whether he agrees with me or not, my decisions are final and…I would never..ever replace him."
The knock at her door came late that night. Eva slipped inside, quietly for once. She set a sealed letter on the desk.
"Scouts returned," she said softly, her expression serious. "You'll want to read this yourself."
Ann broke the seal with fingers that shook.
Countless villages burned. Corpses mangled past recognition. Dark magic sewn into flesh. Ely and his coven walking openly with the Lycan King now and their twisted experiments let loose like a plague across the countryside.
This was no longer just raids, and scattered terror, this was organized destruction.
Her stomach sank to stone and she forced her hand steady against the letter.
"Get Adam," she said hoarsely. "Now."
He arrived just before dawn, smelling of smoke and steel, and his shoulders held tightly. The distance between them hurt Ann more than she wanted to admit.
"You have news?" He asked, his voice was clipped. It was too formal...just another knife thrown at her as if he were nothing more than a soldier there to obey her commands.
Ann handed him the letter without daring to speak because she knew that her voice would betray her.
She watched his jaw clench and his nostrils flare as his wolf rose behind his eyes.
When he finally looked up, his voice was rough and final.
"Ann, we can't avoid it anymore. He's forcing our hand."
The war she had prayed to postpone. The war she had bent herself in half to delay, to prepare for, to soften…she could see it descending around her like an inevitable tidal wave and there was nothing more that she could do to stop it.
Adam's claws dug into the table.
"We are at war, Ann. Whether we say it aloud or not."
She wanted to vomit, to sob and collapse to the floor in despair, but that would do none of them any good. It was her job to lead, not to fall.
So instead, she held his gaze, her mask barely holding.
"Then we'll say it," she whispered. "But not yet. Not until we're ready."
His silence pressed harder than any argument.
Maeve's voice lifted softly, soothing her as best as she could but firm at the same time.
"You need to announce it Ann..No more waiting. There's no more time."