Chapter 50: The Morning After

Chapter 50: The Morning After
Olivia was up before Jean's key turned in any lock.

She had not slept properly and she knew it showed. She washed her face twice, hoping the cold water would do something useful, and braided her hair with more care than usual as though neatness could compensate for the hollowness behind her eyes.

It could not.

She went to draw Josh's bath. She set out his clothes. She collected the morning correspondence from the hall and arranged it in the correct order on the left side of his desk.

She was reaching for the curtain to let in the morning light when Josh spoke.

"How was your night?"

Olivia turned.

He was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, already dressed, watching her with the particular attention he used when he had already noticed something and was giving her the chance to explain it herself.

"Fine, your majesty," she said. "Thank you."

He looked at her for a moment.

"You look pale," he said.

"I am always this colour, your majesty."

"Not like that."

Olivia smoothed the curtain and turned back to the room. "The journey yesterday was long. I am just tired. It will pass."

Josh said nothing.

She could feel him still looking at her. She kept her face arranged and went about the rest of the morning tasks with the mechanical efficiency she had perfected over years of not wanting people to see inside her.

He did not push.

But he crossed the room toward her and reached out, touching her neat braided hair with a gentleness that did not match the man the rest of the world knew. “It's fine”
“Thanks” Olivia bowed

His wolf started immediately.

Mate, it said. Mate. Mate.

Josh ignored it with some effort.

He was more certain now than ever. A white wolf. Only a wolf of royal blood carried that. And his pack had been waiting for a Luna for years. His wolf had known from the first moment. His mind was simply taking longer to accept what his instincts already understood completely.

"I would like a word with you later," he said. His voice was low, his mouth close to her ear. "In the study. After breakfast."

Olivia had gone completely still the moment his hand touched her hair.

"Your majesty," she managed. "I need to fetch your breakfast tray."

She stepped away and left the room before he could say anything else.

In the corridor she pressed one hand briefly to her chest and kept walking.

His touch had been so light. So unexpectedly soft. And her body had responded to it in a way that alarmed her considerably.

She walked faster.

You nearly– Lisa started.

"Do not," Olivia said firmly.

I was just–

"Do not, Lisa."

++++

Harris arrived at breakfast with a smile and a comment about the Greywood food being inferior to anything Jean produced and did anyone actually enjoy those gatherings or did everyone just pretend.

Josh sat at the head of the table and watched his cousin and said nothing.

Josh picked up his cup.

He set it down without drinking from it.

Harris glanced at him.

"You are quiet this morning," Harris said.

"I am often quiet," Josh replied.

"Quieter than usual."

"Long week," Josh said.

Harris held his gaze for just a moment.

He left twenty minutes before he usually did.

Correspondence, he said. He had fallen behind.

Josh watched him go.

++++

Olivia was in the garden waiting for the signal that Josh needed her presence when she heard footsteps behind her that were not in any hurry.

She turned.

The older woman from last night stood several feet away. In daylight she looked different, less composed than she had been in the study, or perhaps just differently composed. Like someone who had said the hard thing and was now working out what came next.

She looked at Olivia with those same eyes from the corridor.

"I apologise for stopping you," the woman said. "You do not know me. I understand that."

"No," Olivia said carefully. "I do not."

"My name is Reta," the woman said. "I was taken in the Moon Shadow Pack raid three years ago. I escaped six months later." She paused. "I was there the night it happened. The night the pack was attacked."

Olivia went very still.

"I saw you," Reta said. "You were younger. You were trying to find your parents in the chaos." She met Olivia's eyes steadily. "I am sorry. I could not help you then. There was nothing any of us could do."

Olivia said nothing. The words landed somewhere deep and heavy. She thought of her mother throwing herself in front of everything that night. She thought of how many times she had told herself that was the end of it.

"I am telling you this," Reta continued, "because there is something you should know. Something I have carried for three years because I did not know who to tell or whether it would matter."

Olivia looked at her.

"Your mother," Reta said carefully. "I saw her after the attack. She was not–" she stopped. Gathered herself. "She was alive when I last saw her. Injured. But alive. She was being taken, not – she was not among the ones who did not survive."

The garden was completely silent.

Olivia stared at her.

"What?" she said. The word came out very small.

"I cannot tell you where she is now," Reta said quickly. "I do not know. We were separated before we reached the first cart. But I wanted you to know what I saw." She held Olivia's gaze. "I am sorry I cannot give you more than that."

Olivia stood in the garden and felt the world rearrange itself around her in a way she had no framework for.

Her mother.

Alive.

She could be telling the truth, Lisa said very softly.

Olivia could not reply. She was too far inside her own head to find words.

She started walking without deciding to. Her feet carried her through the palace corridors while her mind was somewhere else entirely. She did not know she had arrived anywhere until she was standing outside the study door with her hand raised and the wood inches from her knuckles.

Then she heard the voices from inside.

Josh's voice first. Low and controlled.

"You have been behind the chaos spreading through the neighbouring packs all this time and yet you appear blameless to everyone around you."

Then Harris. And his voice was different. Stripped of the pleasantness for once.

"Josh, that is not true. Think carefully. I am with you nearly every day. When would I have time to orchestrate something like this?"

"–cannot keep this between us indefinitely," Josh said. "Whatever the women said last night–"

"We will talk about it when I am ready," Josh said quietly.

"Josh–"

"I said when I am ready, Harris."

Silence.

Olivia stood in the corridor with her hand still raised and did not knock.

She stood there for a long moment.

Then she lowered her hand slowly.

She walked back toward her room carrying everything she had just heard alongside e
verything Reta had told her.

Her mother.

Alive.

And inside that study, something between Josh and Harris that was cracking open whether either of them was ready or not.