AVA
Three days after the coronation, my Kings and I went to one of the Crown’s countryside properties to celebrate on our own. It was needed. With everything that happened in between us arresting Elijah and the coronation itself, we all needed to just unwind for a little while.
We spent five perfect days enjoying each other’s company, swimming, relaxing by the lake, and just celebrating everything in our own way.
We’d been through a lot in the last six months, and it was time we took the time to reflect, celebrate, and breathe a sigh of relief.
The following weeks and months after we came back were chaotic.
Of course, we had brief glimmers of normalcy when Theo and Oscar turned 18. We had to have a ball that the Kingdom could attend, but after, we hosted a party just for family and friends, and I spoiled the two of them rotten.
My 18th birthday followed six weeks after theirs, and after the huge fuss that was my birthday for the Kingdom, my Kings swept me away from it all for a week.
As soon as I could, I started working through old, archaic laws and traditions, doing away with anything that put anyone, male or female, at any kind of risk. We repealed laws about forced matings, clarified laws about consent, and put into place more protection for female Alphas across the Kingdom.
Over the six months that followed our coronation, we dealt with a lot of corrupt ministers, firing any that needed firing and holding votes to bring in new ones. A lot changed, and for some of the Kingdom, it would take them a while to catch up.
I’d be patient, for a time.
If it came out that they were breaking the laws or hadn’t enacted them after they’d had a reasonable amount of time to do so, they would be arrested and prosecuted with the full force of the law.
I refused to let anyone go through the same thing I did. No one should lose their parents because they disagreed with a mating someone else was trying to force on their children.
After all of that, we put in place procedures for packs to apply to us for aid, whether they need military aid, financial aid, medical aid, or whatever else it may be. It was a long process, but one that we knew was necessary and would be worth it in the end. There were a lot of smaller packs that simply didn’t have the funds to rebuild after rogue attacks or natural disasters, but the Crown did, and we firmly believed the Crown should help out.
A lot of pack leaders had a lot of questions and needed help adjusting to the changes. To tackle that, we split the Kingdom into quadrants. Each of my Kings took one quadrant to divide the workload amongst us. When it was necessary, I went with my Kings on their journeys to other packs, but that wasn’t always possible, especially since Eclipse Mountain took up so much of my time in the early days of our rule.
Jacob and Amelia announced they were expecting another child, after what they believed was years of fertility problems. Not only were they overjoyed that they would be able to add to their family like they’d wanted to for a long time, but the pack elders were happy that Jacob had an heir again. After all, I had stolen his away and made them my Kings.
I didn’t tell them, but I believed that Selene had helped them out in return for everything they did, not just for me, not just for the Kings, but the pack and the Kingdom too. Without the two of them, we never would have gotten this far.
Izzie and Leo turned 18, and they discovered they are fated mates. We all attended the celebration of that back in Blood Moon, and they promised they would come and visit us after they were back from their ‘honeymoon’.
We didn’t know what the future would hold, but one thing I was sure of is that things would settle. The chaos caused by Elijah and Matthew would become a distant memory and all of my reforms would become the norm.
My Kings and I would get used to being royalty, and running a Kingdom would get slightly easier.
Maybe we’d get married. Maybe we would decide it wasn’t necessary.
With everything that happened and the long-term impact of me being on forced contraceptives for nearly a decade… we had no idea if children were even a possibility.
If they weren’t, I knew we’d start having problems with older members of the Kingdom. But I’d be ready for them, and they wouldn’t know what hit them.
Because for now, my Kings and I are happy. Together, we can deal with anything.