The dark coat that Coral had helped her into was buttoned securely and the set of her shoulders said that she was confident and strong.The line of her jaw said she'd already chosen her enemy and nothing in this room could change it. The weight she carried in her belly was visible and unapologetic. She didn't hide it and she didn't soften to make the court comfortable.If anything, it only made her aura more impressive.
Refugees against the walls saw her and started cheering, ragged and fierce. The guards took it up and the nobles who tried to keep speaking over it soon learned that they didn't have that power anymore.
Ann didn't wait for the herald. She didn't slow down the entire length of the room towards teh throne and she passed the lord who'd had his hands on the throne without even bothering to look at him.
She stopped at the base of the dais and turned to face them all.
"Do you really think this kingdom will bow?" she asked.
She didn't shout, there was no need to because silence had fallen and everyone here wanted to hear what she had to say.
She didn't need to. The hall quieted because it wanted to hear what would happen next.
"You nobles stand here in all your finery and call surrender a chance for survival. You ask if a queen who bleeds can still rule. You ask if a mother can still fight."
She put her palm flat against her side and the pressure steadied her. It also signaled every watching eye that she wasn't going to hide a single reason she had to be feared.
"I carry three heirs," she said. "Our future is inside me and do you dare to think that I will allow them to inherit a collar? Do you think I'll raise my people's children under the threat of dark magick and the strike of another mans hand?! No."
The word hit them hard and for a moment it felt as though all the air had been sucked from the room.
"If the Lycan King brings his horrors to our gates, we break them. If he sends men to my door with blades dipped in curses, we end them. If he wants to teach this realm fear, he can start by learning what it means to try to take it from me."
The noble who had argued for terms half bowed, voice forced soft.
"Your Majesty, no one questions your courage. We only…"
"You only calculate where to kneel without dirtying your cuffs." Ann didn't blink. "You don't get to speak for the people who bled on those roads. You don't get to sell their dead to buy yourself a quieter night."
Color rose high on his cheekbones and he reached for indignation but found none of it could hold in the face of a hall that had already chosen.
Ann turned her head, slow enough to make every gaze follow.
"Look around you," she said to the nobles as a whole. "Those you call 'common' stand in this room because they lived through something you only read about on a page. They will eat at my table so long as I breathe. They will serve beside my guards because they've already proved themselves more loyal than the men who wore your rings."
A murmur went through the ranks of refugees at that, sharp and bright. Someone shouted,
"For the Alpha Queen!" and the echo came back in voices from every wall.
Ann didn't raise her chin any higher to ride it. She let it crest and then spoke again, even and sure.
"I don't ask you to like me. I don't ask for comfort. I'm not a symbol you set on a cushion when it suits you. I am the crown you kneel to only because I allow you to keep your titles. I am the mother of this realm's future and I will not allow you to trade that future for fear."
The lord at the arm of the throne had retreated two steps without realizing it but no one else moved. Ann's aura was blazing in her fury, even though she radiated calm.
Eva stood behind her left shoulder, hands still at her sides and ready to catch if Ann swayed. Coral stood behind the right, weight shifted slightly forward. Thalia was farther off, eyes steady, mind already counting ways to seal the hall if anyone tried for a blade.
"This is what will happen," she said. "You will stop speaking of surrender as if it were wise. You will stop trading in rumors as if they were coin. You will carry food to the barracks and water to the wards and work until there is nothing left in your hands to give, the same as the rest of us. You will lend silver and land and labor because this crown keeps you fed. If you won't, the people you've sneered at will gladly take your place."
A woman at the edge of the noble cluster found courage and stepped forward.
"Your Majesty," she said, very clear, "my house stands with you."
Ann nodded once.
"Good. Speak to Coral for assignments. All of you who mean it, go with her when we finish here. If you need to be convinced, you can leave now and save me the time."
No one left. The important part wasn't that they stayed. It was the way they stayed. Less straight-backed pride and more listening.
"Some of you think my wound makes me weak." Ann's tone sharpened, "It doesn't. It makes me dangerous. Don't mistake what I am because I am also a mother. Don't mistake what I can do because I am also carrying the future. If you want to test me, understand that I have nothing left to give the man who tried to put me in the ground except fire."
The hall held its breath as they waited for her to continue.
"Now," Ann said, businesslike. "If you have wagons, load them. If you have hands, use them. If you have men who think the word surrender belongs in their mouths, send them to me and I'll teach them a better one."
That broke the spell. Nobles peeled off toward the doors. Refugees stayed to watch them go and then, when they were satisfied the backs were truly turning, they cheered again.
Ann stayed until the worst of the noise had leveled off. Her side ached, her legs shook once and then held.
"You need to go back," Coral murmured, close to her ear. "You promised."
Ann kept her gaze on the doors until the last noble disappeared. Then she looked at Eva.
"Now I can go back."
They turned and the guards fell in. As they stepped into the antechamber, a young scribe flattened himself against the wall.
"Your Majesty," he said, voice breaking. "Thank you."
Ann nodded. It was all she had left to give him without lying about how much it took from her.
Back in the infirmary, the midwives moved quickly.
One slid an arm around her shoulders to lower her to the cot. Another pressed a clean cloth to the edge of the bandage and set about redressing the leakage.
None of them said I told you so. None of them had to.
"You're a menace." Maeve huffed.
"At least they understand that I am done walking on eggshells and trying to keep the peace."
Ann let her head fall back to the pillow and thought of the lives of the three little ones inside of her as she fell into sleep.
By nightfall, every corner of the palace knew it and by the morning, the city would too.
The throne hadn't moved, the crown hadn't been taken and the realm hadn't bowed.
The queen had returned. She was furious. She was radiant.
And she was unstoppable.