The Forbidden Mate
Chapter Fourteen – Who is She?

Ellen

I sigh. I know there is no point in lying to my father. He is too clever he would see through any story that I invented straightaway. I have no choice but to tell him the truth. I am worried though. I had promised to keep Katy safe, but the more people who knew who she really was the less secure she would be.

“Katy is the Princess Katherina the sole surviving child of the former king and queen” I tell him.

He nods, unsurprised by my admission. “How did she escape when the rest of her family were murdered?” he asks me.

“I was staying at the palace when the royal family were assassinated. I had gone there to attend the Winter Solstice ball with the rest of the royal court, but I had a migraine so gave my apologies and went to bed. If not for that I would have been killed with the rest.

I had been asleep when I was awoken by screams and shouts from the party. I went to investigate and was horrified to discover that a massacre was taking place. The bodies of dead and dying wolves were strewn across the floor of the ballroom.

Black Moon Pack members had somehow broken into the palace, and mad with bloodlust were killing everyone they encountered. I could see the king and queen’s bodies lying dead by their thrones. I knew that few people would survive and if I didn’t leave at once, I wouldn’t be one of them.

I knew that the Princess Katherina being too young to attend the ball would still be in the nursery. That she would be the attackers next target, and once they had found her, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. I decided that if she were to survive, I would need to take her with me.

I ran to the nursery. I took Katy from her nurse, and in the panic and chaos that the Black Moon Pack had caused I was able to flee from the palace unnoticed. Initially I hoped that when things had calmed down, I would be able to return her to her family. That someone in the royal family would have survived, but it became clear in the following days that the Black Moon Pack had killed them all.

“Why didn’t you contact some of the leading courtiers or the commander of the royal army?” he asked me.

“I couldn’t trust them. The only way that the Black Moon pack would have been able to launch a successful attack like that was if they had inside help from someone close to the royal family. I had hoped that as time went on it would be clear who had betrayed them, and who was loyal. I knew that only then would I be able to share the burden of protecting Katherina with others. But that never happened. We never found out who the traitor was.

The royal pack was in chaos, and when things calmed down, they were in a desperate fight with the Black Moon Pack for survival. High ranking wolves were being hunted and murdered by Lucius, the Royal Pack weren’t strong enough to protect them. If Lucius learned that Katy had survived, he would have stopped at nothing to kill her. Too many good wolves under the protection of the royal pack had already been killed by him. I couldn’t let that happen to her.

So I decided to hide her, somewhere that no one would suspect, with good people who could never know the full truth. That is why I brought Katy here, and here is where she has been safe for seventeen years” I tell him defiantly. I was proud of what I had done for my princess. I had kept her alive.

“I cannot deny that what you have done, has saved her life. It was the best way to keep her safe, but now things have changed. You must see that?” he tells me.

“Yes” I confess, “since she turned eighteen it has become more and more difficult to protect her, to hide what she is. Her true nature is becoming more apparent. I have told her part of the truth about her past, but she knows that there is still more that I am hiding from her. She has begun to question me and rebels against keeping secrets from her friends. She is having some kind of relationship with Alex which will only draw attention to her and put her in more danger.”

“Alex is her mate” he tells me. “They can’t stay away from each other.”

“Then she is in even more trouble than I thought” I tell him.

“She was already in danger. The moment her wolf emerged your plan to keep her hidden, to pretend that she is a simple Omega was going to fail.

A royal is too strong and too dominant, to be concealed in this way. Her wolf will fight to rise to the surface. She will struggle to control her if another wolf tries to put her down or force her to submit. It won’t be long before the rest of the pack realise that she is not an Omega.

She has already put herself in danger by running through the forest in her wolf form. She was seen by Alex although he didn’t recognise her. Beta Carl is also growing suspicious he knows that a strange wolf has been spotted on pack lands.”

“I told her not to shift, how dangerous it would be if she let her wolf out” I exclaim.

“She is a werewolf, she cannot continue to hide her true nature” he states.

I know that he is right. “So, what do we do?” I ask?

“First of all, we need to be truthful with Alex and Katy” he tells me. “They both have a right to know who she really is.

Katy can no longer hide, she needs protection. The protection that Alex, and other loyal members of the pack can provide her with. We also need to let the royal pack know about her existence. I do not know if they have uncovered and dealt with all their traitors, but Joseph is a good man, and he has sworn to protect her. He is searching for her already.”

“OK, but we need to proceed with caution” I say.

“Of course. She is in grave danger. Joseph is not the only wolf looking for her. Lucius is convinced that the princess survived and is obsessed with replaceing her” he tells me. “I will invite them both to my house. They are expecting me to give them my decision on whether I will support their mating. We can explain everything to them then and agree what we should do next.”

I am moved that he wants me to be there, that we will do this together, father and daughter again.