"What do you mean naked?!" Adam exploded standing abruptly from the chair as Maeve laughed loudly in her head and Ann suppressed a grin.
"Relax, Adam, come on, sit down," Ann coaxed him as he looked down at her incredulously.
She pulled on his sleeve and eventually, reluctantly, he sat, although the warning growls from his wolf rumbled ominously from his chest.
"I feel like I need to have a serious conversation with your wolf," He said sulkily as Ann laughed out loud at his pout.
"I wouldn't bother, she doesn't make much sense most days," Ann grinned, ignoring Maeve's shouts of protest, "Here, let me clean this, " she continued pulling Adam's hand towards her.
They sat quietly as Ann worked on cleaning and dressing the wounds and apart from the odd intake of breath from Adam, things stayed relatively quiet.
"Now, tell me about these prisoners." Ann said, nodding appreciatively to a guard who had just deposited a warm mug of tea on the table for them each.
Adam sighed as he began.
"They came in a little too easily if I'm honest," Adam said, wincing as Ann pressed against one of the deeper cuts to tape it shut and let the wolf take over the healing.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we thought it was an attack at first, six of them running along the edge of our sight, and when they started coming closer, after we had already launched an attack on them, we saw that they definitely weren't in any fighting state."
"Any casualties?"
"Not on our side, well, not from these anyway. They lost three though, and we captured three. I don't know what to call them other than scouts because none of them want to talk."
Ann hummed thoughtfully as she worked then a slow smile spread on her face.
"What?" Adam asked, his brows knitting together in confusion.
"Well I was just thinking how lucky you are that your wife happens to be the Alpha Queen of the Veritas bloodline, with a very unique ability."
It took a moment for Adam to register what she was saying and then, she watched as the realisation dawned on his face.
"Wait, you mean.."
"I do mean," Ann grinned, "If it will save time I can compel them without the need to injure them. I'm sure someone somewhere will have a problem with me doing it, but right now, the security of our people is the most important thing. If there's any pushback, we can deal with it later…and maybe set a few rogues loose in the grounds of the nobles who bring issues with it."
Adam chuckled,
"I can see you've reached your limit with them finally."
Ann sighed and threw the last bandage on the table.
"It's just every day Adam, I'm so tired of sitting in that damn chair and listening to them whine about how their luxuries are harder to come by or finding fault with things that really, at this point, are fucking irrelevant." She paused as she ran a hand down her face, "How they were allowed to get this self centered I have no idea."
"Ooo! I know! I know! Pick me!" Maeve shouted gleefully.
"Obviously I fucking know how, I was expressing my frustration…" Ann hissed back.
"Then why say it?" Maeve asked innocently as she fluttered her eyelashes at her and Ann decided that if she could just mute her for a few hours, she would probably have less of a headache at the end of the day.
"Well, the nobles are a problem we can deal with after we beat this son of a bitch into the ground," Adam said seriously, cutting through Ann's thoughts.
Ann nodded and reached for her tea.
"Did you have enough space to secure them at least? Although I can't imagine there's been much opportunity or need for taking prisoners in recent history. I imagine the facilities here were not quite what you're used to."
"They were enough for what we needed, thankfully." Adam said as he drained his drink in a few seconds, "When you've finished with that, we can head down and interrogate them."
"Not wasting any time then," Ann snorted.
"Well, I'm secretly hoping that my headstrong wife will take her arse back to the palace where I know she's safe once she's poked around with the prisoners for long enough that it satisfies her curiosity." Adam said with a mischievous grin.
"Fine," Ann replied, "But just remember this is the first time I've been outside of the palace grounds in far too long. It's starting to feel like a prison in there too."
"And you choose night time for your little escapade?" He snorted as he held the door open for her.
"I blame you honestly," Ann smirked.
"Me?!"
"Of course. If you had sent your message earlier I would have come earlier."
"And walked straight into the capturing of the prisoners," Adam said with his mouth set in a straight line.
"Maybe, but in all fairness, I wouldn't have been able to make mortal enemies of the majority of the Elders from the Enclave if I had come earlier, so, I suppose it's a win-win for both of us." she said as they crossed the yard together.
"How is antagonising them, a win win exactly?" Adam asked as one of the Dark Moon guards that stood at the barn doors with iron bars set across them, opened the latch and pushed in ahead of them to check the room.
"Well it was bound to happen sooner or later," ann sniffed, "Besides, you were the one who said I should be firmer, that I shouldn't let them get away with as much, so now I'm just laying all my cards on the table."
They waited outside for the guard to re-emerge and then they were waved in.
"Well as long as you have a better hand than they do…" Adam mumbled as they stepped inside.
Adam went first, followed by Ann and as soon as her eyes adjusted to the darkness she saw their captives.
Three Lycans with mud and ash ground into their skin knelt at the center, with their collars chained to a thick beam. One was young, barely past twenty. One had lines at the mouth that said he had seen more winters than he probably cared to admit and the third stared at the floor with eyes that would not settle.
"They don't look much like fighters," Maeve said as pity pulled at both of them.
"No. They don't. They look like we can probably help them more than they can help us." Ann replied as she struggled with the complicated mix of both pity, and anger at the prisoners before her.