(Ethan’s POV)

Going straight to my mother’s hiding space within the palace, after seeing the Queen, Damien and I might be holding hands, but I was lost in my thoughts.

“Your Majesty!?”

I looked up to see a maid and blinked. Straightening up, I became the ‘King’ and looked at the maid with questions in my eyes. From what I know…She was standing right outside where my mother was being kept…

After a moment of silence, Damien held my hand tighter all of a sudden, and I looked up at him in puzzlement.

“Mine!”

Uh?

I know I was his…

“Stop staring at other people!”

…Oh!

I let out a small chuckle and when I looked back at the maid, I remembered I was supposed to act as King and straightened myself back up again. “I would like to see my mother.”

“Your Majesty…I was told that you would have heard…”

“Heard what?” I had…A bad feeling about this! The maid looked somewhat scared and…Was that pity? Sorrow?

“…Your mother passed away.”

Silence overcame the corridor that was quite dark…

I wanted to speak…But I didn’t know what to say…

How could she just die?

…Maybe I heard it wrong…

Finally opening my mouth, all I could utter was, “…What?”

“She…” The maid bowed her head more deeply and went silent.

“When did she die?” I heard Damien speak, as I was unable too. To be honest, I had not accepted this in the least…

How could she just die?

“…Not long after His Majesty’s last visit. I was told that you will be informed immediately.”

The maid had her head bowed and spoke in a small voice, only making me more and more restless.

Could it be…True?

But…

When I last visited…

“…My last visit? That was…Months ago!” I was starting to get really angry. Even if I was in denial about her death, this type of news was a bit…Shocking!

So…It mustn’t be true, she can’t be dead!

Yet…I had a niggling feeling inside of me go a bit numb…

…At first, I was shocked, but hearing this, when it has been months! What was going on!?

“Yes, she seemed to have died in her sleep, Your Majesty. She had left a secret letter to you, that was why I am still here. As I had to hand it to you personally.”

I swallowed…My mother…Was gone?

Just like that…

We didn’t even become close…Ever…

I wanted to show her Chance…Damien…

I wanted to ask about my father…

Why is she dead!?

Without knowing, the maid had left to get this letter, because Damien had told her too, while I was trapped in my own thoughts.

I couldn’t believe months had gone by and that I had never known!

Why was I the last to know about everything important!

I didn’t even know about the Elementalist’s until I visited The Surveillance Pack! Now, after months, I didn’t even know my own bloody mother had died!

…I really was starting to feel inadequate all over again!

“Ethan! Hey!”

Blinking, I see a hand going over my eyes and then Damien in front of me. “Here. Let’s read it away from prying eyes, hey?”

What? I looked around and found that the maid had gone, and it was just the two of us once again.

I slowly took the letter and looked at it…

“Sweetheart, come here.”

He took me into his embrace, and I put my head onto his shoulder.

I hadn’t really been affectionate with my mother, nor did I know much about her, perhaps…

Closing my eyes, I tried to picture her, yet had troubles.

Settling into the news now, I accepted the truth and realized that it had only been shock that had made me speechless before…Well, that was what I thought it as…

Feeling like my fate really had some vendetta against me, I tightened my hold over my mate, still holding the letter in my hand.

“…You really didn’t know?” Damien asked gently.

His voice soothed me, just like his embrace, and I shook my head.

“…This is really getting strange, precious, we need to try and figure out what is going on in your own castle!”

I wished I could laugh, because it was funny. I never felt like I owned this place, yet here I am feeling like I should own it.

I nodded once again and smiled, he was everything I needed, I didn’t need a castle!

Strangely though, I felt the dominance of a King, that I had slowly learnt to get over the years, and decided that it was about time that things changed around here…

I felt weird thinking those two things straight after one another…Here I am stating I don’t want anything, then stating that I was going to change my castle to make it my own…

Pulling back, out of his embrace, I smiled at him, “Ok…Let’s read her letter.”

Damien and I then made our way towards the water hole and he walked around, suddenly telling me that ‘here’ would be a good spot.

I looked around and found that rocks and trees did surround that area and nodded. I wasn’t going to make a big deal about how obvious Damien was in making sure we were by ourselves. In fact, I felt blessed that he was there, as I might have been a bit emotional at this time if I were alone.

Such a blessing he was…

Opening the letter, I took a deep breath and read my mother’s handwriting,

Ethan, I haven’t much time, so I will write to you.

Don’t trust Owen, he is planning something bigger then you can image. He is using you and may even use my grandchild Chance to get rid of the threat upon the royal line. Once the threat is gone, and trust me, he’s patient to wait, he has plans!

He is mates with your half-sister, and she survived the burial. I sent my maid to investigate her, since I know where she was hidden, and they finally have a son! This son is obviously someone that could be next in line to the throne and I’m sure that he plans to make his son the King in the future.

Before he poisoned me, he told me that I will see you as soon as the threat is gone! Obviously, he plans to kill you!

I don’t know how long this will take to get to you, but you must take care of yourself and stay alive.

Owen cannot be trusted!

I’m sorry we weren’t close, and I had every intention to talk to you about your father beforehand, but it looks like I won’t be able too.

I love you. Have all this time!

Mum.

I let out a laugh, putting my hand down, still holding the letter.

I never thought that Owen was as bad as this!

He did overstep lines between master and servant, but I never thought…Ever…

I let out another laugh and shook my head.

Why? Why do I have to overcome so many things!?

I didn’t even want to become King back then, now I find out that I was forced to do so, just to help get rid of this threat looming over the royal line!?

I had wanted to wait, to meet my destined mate, but no, I had to take another mate and have a child, only for that child to be a part of somebody else’s scheme?

Right, it was a scheme…The whole thing! The entire idea of me becoming King, and having a child, was a scheme to help get rid of the threat!

Owen…He wanted me to go through all this, so that in time he is to find a way to get rid of these Elementalist’s…Then…

‘Obviously he plans to kill you!’

I really…Had no words…

I didn’t even know how to feel right now…

All this time I was being used, to get rid of a threat to the royal line, so that Owen’s…

And this was why I wanted to laugh. He was training myself and Chance to keep an eye on us, to keep himself in our lives.

Chance…

Fisting my hands with the letter, I felt an anger rise through me like I’d never felt anger before.

I was…Raging inside!

How dare he!?

“Hey, Ethan...”

I focused, seeing Damien in front of me, with his hands on the sides of my face.

He looked worried and I closed my eyes, not sure on what to do or say.

It looked like…My mother was killed, my own child is being used and myself as well, we were both just a pawn…

I was holding a big lie that could mean the loss of loyalty to the throne and I was overcome with way too much! Especially since…No wonder Owen…Maybe it would be a logical way of getting rid of me without getting his hands dirty…All he would have to do is tell everyone about me being an Omega…

Was that how he was planning to deal with me, when his son is all grown up?

“Sweetheart, no matter what the obstacle is, even if the world is against us, we will fight…Right?”

I took a deep breath in, and then nodded, “…Fight…”

I hardly ever cared enough to fight back, especially when I felt like I had no right to…But my beautiful mate was really…

How could I had ever thought that I never needed him!? Right now…He was all I needed!

Us…Against the world!

It felt laughable, as I was sure I would get more on my side, yet…In the past, and going to other packs, some of them really valued Owen…

This might be a long fight…

Putting a hand up to Damien’s face, I smiled. He gave me courage, among so much other things…In just one day, I felt utterly blessed that we had met, that we had finally come to be together. He was becoming…My rock…

If whatever my mother said was true, then…Owen was my enemy, as well as Elementalist’s…

Dropping my hand and looking away from Damien, the emotions started to pile up with my thoughts.

Remembering Owen saying something about enemies, I let out a short sob…

How could he say that to me, when he was the enemy!?

Wiping my eyes, I felt Damien’s lips on my cheek and the sparks helped me snap out of my thoughts.

“Let’s shift and have a silent conversation, precious. I don’t want anyone to know about this letter and our thoughts.”

How sad…A King having to worry about what he talks about!

Perhaps, this is what it was really like to be King after all…

Now that I decided to keep an eye on Owen, that I doubted him, this is how I had to act…

I nodded, and we stripped and shifted.

Upon our ‘chat’ we were side by side and spoke of ideas and advice. We brought up a couple of plans and spoke of what was on our minds.

Damien was more of the shot first, ask questions later…Whereas I was the one that wanted to make sure of things, before the trigger is used. I worried about any innocents that might get hurt in the process…

He wouldn’t get angry at me though, in fact, it seemed to do the opposite as he snuggled into me, rubbing and the occasion lick with his big tongue.

For hours we were there near the water hole, and before we left, we reread the letter one more time and put it into a fire.

…We had come to a conclusion.

We know for certain that Owen may truly be our enemy…We know that we did have another enemy, and that was the Elementalist’s. We know that I now had doubts to at least start to find evidence against Owen’s presumed actions, but I was not ready to kill him.

Throughout my young years he had been there for me, and it’s hard sometimes to see him as someone who would be using me, but my guard was now up against him, that was for certain!

I was going to get my castle back and win the pack’s hearts to my side! I was going to take control and have even thought of coming out sooner, rather then later, to state that I was an Omega!

There were two reasons for this, one was because I didn’t want to lie anymore and two, because it’ll be one less thing that Owen would have against me.

I was also going to stop the threat to the royal family completely!

Another thing that we both agreed upon, was that of finding more information. Damien’s pack was going to migrate back, closer to the north here, and he was going to get them to ask some of the elder’s in packs some questions. Those questions were not quite thought of yet, but it was a start into finding out the truth in all this! Especially if they could find Ethan’s half sister and confirm if she has a son. And even if she has a son, would they really be their enemies?

I wanted to think that she wasn’t, yet Damian could only think the worst at the moment. The most important thing to Damien…Was my safety. Safety from the Elementalist’s and safety from…My so-called family…

As far as I was aware, my half sister and her daughter had survived the burial, and…It seems that the only safe place…Was here at the palace…For some reason that I don’t understand.

I was interested in the reason why the Elementalist’s didn’t come here. But Damien had continued on a slightly different topic by stating that Owen may have had a few children in the long time since the late King’s death and that his son might still be young. So, we had to keep an eye on the palace and potentially try to find if my half sister was here or not.

It was…Just one big problem after another!