**3rd Person POV**
The worst of days were over now. The vampires were driven back to their homes mostly because they could no longer stand to walk about during the day anymore. The fiery red moon had disappeared from the skies yet the werewolf clan decided it was not too late to celebrate it. They had been through so much in the past few months. There were still so many unresolved issues. For instance, Irvette was still missing and Alison believed that her sister had not died in the fire. Once experts had been called in to analyse the scene they concluded that Irvette had indeed been there but she had not died in the fire. Alison had created a special group to look for her sister. In the meantime, she and her sister were advisors to Crown Prince Harlin who was officially the Alpha of his pack. As a result of his tender age, the two sisters were ruling the pack on his behalf with the Council of Elders monitoring their government closely.
Alison observed the party forlornly. It was meant to be an occasion of joy but for her, it was one of solemnity. Irene noticed her sister’s dampened mood and walked towards her.
“You must keep a smile on your face even if you do not mean it. It's the burden of leadership,” Irene said, waving off to someone in the distance.
“What if we never find her? What if Harlin grows up without his mother?” questioned Alison in a worried tone. Already, they had to wean the young prince too early. It had caused the boy to cry a lot in recent times. At first, he refused to eat any food and had begun to lose weight. She was very worried about his health. At the moment, she observed that the young prince was playing with the twins. They seemed to be having a cake fight of some sort.
“He has us. He'll be fine,” encouraged Irene. Alison found that hard to believe. She recalled how Regina had grown up in their house. She knew the circumstances had been different but she was still perked about her nephew. She knew she was going to give him all the love she had but she knew that it would not come without its challenges.
“Okay, okay.”
“And here comes Queen Emily, you must put on a bright smile,” whispered Irene to her sister. Alison fixed her expression as Queen Emily came closer.
“Queen Emily, I am grateful you honoured my invite,” said Alison as she proffered a hand to shake Queen Emily.
“I could not stay away; Prince Harlin is my godson. It's a shame what happened to Irvette but I intend to be fully involved in Harlin's life. He's very important to me and not to mention, the twins seem to have taken a liking to him,” returned Queen Emily. She had a personal problem with Irvette given that she had contributed to kidnapping the twins but she was not going to take it out on innocent Prince Harlin. Besides, it was hard to be angry with the young Prince who had to be the most adorable baby ever.
“Ah, yes,” Alison said, seeing as Harlin's body was now plastered with cake frosting. She signalled to his nanny to tidy up the Prince. “I know I don't have the right to ask but Princess Regina? Is she doing well?”
“She's doing alright. She could not make it here today,” Queen Emily gave her best diplomatic smile. Regina had not been understanding of the whole mind poison. She had claimed that Irvette and her sisters had enjoyed mocking her and treating her like her life did not matter. She doubted that there was going to be room for reconciliation. However, they had agreed that the twins deserved to know about their home and that included the Blood Moon pack. It was the only reason Regina had allowed them to come. Emily was happy they had come because she could see that the twins were enjoying themselves thoroughly.
“If it's possible. I would like to apologise to her personally, I understand…”
“It's too early,” said Emily in a soft tone.
“I understand,” said Alison. She had not meant to push it and she could not entirely say that she had not been selfish when she had asked that question. She thought that it would ease the guilt she felt about her participation in making Regina's life miserable when she had lived with them.
Queen Emily left her to go and speak with someone else but she was not left alone for too long. Alpha Raphael came to her side. She could barely stop herself from rolling her eyes at him. She understood that even though he was married and had lots of mistresses, it did not stop him from picking up new ones. It was said that he made mistresses out of very powerful women. She promised herself that she would not be one of them.
“Princess Alison, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he said in a cheery voice. Irene winked her good luck and left her side. She made a mental note to repay her sister in the same way.
“Funny that you should say that when we have met so many times already,” replied Alison with an awkward smile.
“I'm just stunned by your beauty each time that I do not know what to say to you without sounding like an idiot,” while Alison would have welcomed the flattery in another timeline. Things were different now and she did not have time for meaningless chatter.
“You can always speak freely to me, Alpha Raphael,” she returned with a polite smile. She senses that the man wants to ask her for something more than the affairs of the bedroom.
“Well, uhm. There's a matter I wanted to broach with Queen Emily. I'm not sure if you're aware but my son was set to be betrothed to Princess Charlotte,” began Alpha Raphael.