AVA
I did not want to get up the next morning.
Saturday had come around too quickly, which meant tonight, the five of us would be paraded around
in front of all of Eclipse Mountain, the leaders of every pack and since it was our home pack, most of
Blood Moon.
I was not looking forward to this, and my nervousness was bleeding through the matelink to my
Kings.
For once, I agreed to have someone do my hair and makeup for me. Not for appearances, but more
because I have a habit of getting a bit… red faced if I’m angry, and there will be a lot of people that
will get on my bad side, especially since the fact I stripped Minister Byron of his position and locked
him up pending trial.
Of course, there was also the concern that my Kings would make a point of making me blush, and I
had no chance of keeping that tucked away with makeup. Better to have someone else to do it for me,
especially since one of my personal staff was a qualified makeup artist.
“Alex, morning,” I reached out through the mindlink to him. “What time are you all coming?” I really
wanted to see them all before the celebration, I knew we’d all get caught up with political nonsense
and so would hardly get a chance otherwise.
“Ava, we’re already on the way,” Beta Alex’s voice came through my mind, and I could hear his
smile. “We should be arriving in Eclipse Mountain just after midday.”
“Who’s coming?”
“Myself, Jacob and Amelia, your parents, Izzie and Leo. We were going to bring more, but with
everything going on…” He sounded nervous. To be honest, I wouldn’t be hosting this yet if we didn’t
have to.
“I get that, don’t worry,” I tried to let my smile show through my voice. “I think Michael has arranged
guest rooms for you all, but you can stay with us if you’d rather. There are enough bedrooms in our
Suite for it.”
“That’d be great, Ava,” he smiled.
“I’ll get Alpha Michael to meet you at the border, he’ll show you up to our Suite. You guys can all get
ready here.”
“Looking forward to it,” he sounded far too happy about today. He’d definitely not be as comfortable
later on once everything started happening.
I shut the link with him, before reaching out to Michael. “Michael, good morning.”
“My Queen, I hope you all slept well. I’ll have breakfast sent up for the five of you shortly.”
“Thanks, Michael. The reason for my link – the people coming from our old pack will stay in the spare
rooms in our suite whilst they are here. When they arrive, can you show them up to us, please? And
what is the timeline for tonight?”
“Of course, my Queen. The celebrations tonight will begin at about 7pm with a cocktail reception
whilst guests arrive. We’ll announce you and the Kings into the ballroom at about 7. 30pm. At that
point, I’ll give a welcome speech, we’ll all have dinner, and then you and I will give our full speeches
before the ball begins.”
Eww, I hadn’t planned my speech yet, and I assume Michael could sense that.
“My Queen, if you’d like, we can have someone write a speech for you.”
Eww.
“No thanks, Michael, I’ll be okay.”
We said our goodbyes, and closed the link.
Everyone arrived two hours later, and their faces were a picture. The Suite was excessive at first
glance, but after you got used to it, it still is.
Of course, Michael insisted on sending people to get the rooms ready (again) despite the fact they
were done yesterday, so they all looked and smelled like hotel rooms.
“Ava!” my mum squealed when she walked in, running straight over to me to wrap me in a hug,
kissing my forehead. “I’ve missed you.”
I smiled. “I missed you too, mum.”
Once everyone had said their hellos and exchanged hugs, our guests went to explore our suite. I could
tell when my mum, Amy and Izzie walked into my closet because they all swore in awe. All three of
them. At the same time.
“Jeez, Ava,” Izzie squealed. “Your wardrobe…”
I winced as I walked towards them. I still wasn’t entirely comfortable.
“It still weirds me out a little having this lot…” I pursed my lips as I scanned my wardrobe. “But you
haven’t seen anything yet.”
I moved between the three of them, heading for the expensive, shiny stuff. As soon as I opened the
cupboard and drawers that held all the jewellery, crowns and tiaras, they swore again.
“If Michael was here, he’d faint from the language I’ve heard in here,” Callum’s voice appeared in the
doorway. He walked towards me, wrapping his arms around my waist, his head on my shoulder.
“Which one are you wearing tonight?”
I rolled my eyes. “Apparently it has to be a crown tonight, not just a tiara.” I motioned towards a gold
crown that had a white gold border and was studded with emeralds. “I’m going with this one. The
over-the-top one I plan to only wear for the coronation if I can get away with it.”
“After the coronation, what happens with Michael?” Amy asked.
“He will still be referred to as Alpha Michael by Eclipse Mountain, but he’ll take more of an advisory
role where the Kingdom is concerned. He’ll manage any day-to-day things I want him to manage, but
the Kingdom itself will fall under my rule.”
“I assume you’re planning a lot of changes?” Alex appeared in the doorway. I tried to turn to face him,
but Callum didn’t let me.
“Of course,” I replied. “Quite quickly too, there are a lot of things that have been left to themselves
for too long and a lot of antiquated laws floating around that need to be appealed.”
“I heard you’ve already made an impact,” Jacob added.
Rather than letting my closet get any more cramped, I shooed everyone into our dining room for the
afternoon tea Michael had laid out for us.
“But yes, Jacob,” I continued once we sat down. “I kicked Minister Byron out and he will be tried for
encouraging illegal practices.”
He nodded, face solemn. “If everything I’m hearing is true, it was necessary.”
“Definitely,” I gave a tense smile. “As soon as I can, I will be repealing all laws that make it
acceptable, and putting into place new ones that explicitly ban the practice. At the moment, he’s being
tried for encouraging rape and forced matings, not the practice of enforced betrothals. That’s a
different issue entirely, and one that unfortunately, is currently legal.” I paused for a moment, just to
shove a mini cake in my mouth. “It’s not just Eclipse Mountain it’s legal either. It’s legal across the
entire Kingdom. Some packs have banned it on their own, but… most haven’t.”
“I don’t even want to know how many parents were forced into it when their daughters were young
and haven’t been able to get out of it,” Jacob replied.
“I know,” I sighed. “I’m lucky that I was smuggled out of Eclipse Mountain. If I hadn’t been, I’d have
still been trapped here and would have been forcibly marked on my 18th birthday, and I wouldn’t
have been able to do anything to stop it. Yes, I wouldn’t have been in the situation where Artemis had
to come early, and I wouldn’t have gotten my Lycan form early either, but that would have just meant
I was completely powerless to protect myself.”
“That’s what happened to some of the previous iterations of the Alpha Queen,” Theo added, his voice
low, tense. “And most of the other female Alphas in Ava’s bloodline too.”
The room was silent excluding the sounds of sipping tea as everyone contemplated that thought. Until
Michael interrupted my thoughts to tell us we only had two hours until everyone started to arrive for
the ball.