Preparations

The whispers grew steadily around them “its the princess”, “Which one is the mate?”, “Wolves in the palace?”.

The weapons the guards were beginning to waiver now as the men holding holding them watched the small red headed girl who was clearly their princess dash over to the out of control wolves.

Kit looked around at the guards, hoping for a familiar face, preferably one of the guards who had visited the pack with Octavia and Archibald, only to be disappointed when he found none. His eyes did find one brave guard who had lowered his weapon and was moving swiftly towards Ash.

“Princess, stay back, Please, allow us to deal with these…. creatures” he called.

Ash turned her eyes to the man who was coming towards her, offering his arm. He was a blonde haired, green eyed, 6 foot tall tank, clothed in leather armour. His approach and words however only made it harder for Micah and Mark to keep their grip on the control they had on their wolves, both let out feral sounding, vicious snarls, trying to push between Ash and the new man.

To his credit, the guard didn’t retreat at the noises of clear anger from the wolves, unlike much of the crowd. Kit moved forwards, his mouth opening as he tried to find the words to explain the situation, that was until Ash shook her head firmly at him.

The guards tightened their circle around the small group on the lawn. Ash’s eyes flashed a dangerous shade of purple that no one seemed to pay any attention to. Pushing a hand out, a blast of air pushed against the guard, forcing them back all around the group.

In a split second, with a few muttered words, a shield was wrapped around the group, forcing them closer to Ash than they were standing, Kit could see the shimmering purple construction, while it wasnt what he had taught her, more an instinctive reaction to being threatened, he could not fault it and knew that it would take some powerful magic to remove by force.

This, finally, brought Micah and Mark some relief from the onslaught of questioning magic trying to assess who they were, allowing them to gain their usual composure.

“I am your Princess, My name is Ashlyn Faye and you will lower your weapons right now!” Ash ordered, her gaze sliding over the surrounding men threateningly.

‘Mate is perfect…. she will be perfect Luna’ Zander purred in Micah’s head, as Mark shot Micah an appreciative gaze which said pretty much the same thing.

Micah, Kit and Mark took their positions around Ash, ready to face whatever came next as a group.

The response from the guards and the staff of the palace was far from instantaneous. Ash let out a low, threatening growl as the guard seemed to be making to move closer. the sound would have stopped even Micah in his tracks had he been subject to it, in fact it had before now.

Zander was still purring in appreciation of Ash’s growl; his mate would make a fine Luna; she could control the panicked masses with no trouble; Micah found it quite distracting if he was honest with himself, his eyes drawn to his mate as he watched her defending them all.

**********

It had been about 5 minutes of this stand off before Archibald had finally come outside, dispersing the crowd with nothing more than a look. The guards standing down and melting away into the surroundings again. Ash was unimpressed with her grandfathers apology, which sounded hollow to Micah’s ears.

The group had been in the palace for a week now. Octavia insisting that Ash stay until her presentation ball which was planned for a few days time. Micah and Mark got the distinct impression that they were not included in that invitation, but they were not about to leave her in unfamiliar territory with only Kit for protection. Archibald seemed to be the only person who was pleased to see them, going out of his way to make them feel welcome, sparring with them and offering them tours.

Ash found that she was often separated from Micah and Mark over the week, whisked off to learn new techniques and spells the second she finished her breakfast, her lunch brought to her rooms where she was drilled in the correct etiquette for greeting various important persons who would be at her ball, or the dress maker was fussing over her wardrobe.

She had hoped to be able to spend more time with her uncle and cousins, but it seemed that now she was on their turf, her grandparents took her education much more seriously than they had done before. Most of her days were planned out down to the second, even bathroom breaks were timetabled.

Suddenly she was glad that it was Micah who had found her; as much as she might push at the boundaries Rowan and Melody put in place for her, they were nothing compared to this.

On their first night here, Micah nearly lost his mind when Octavia had shown them to their separate rooms, well suite might be a more appropriate term for the accommodation, Ash had 3 bedrooms in her accomodations alone. ‘Let me deal with it’ Ash had told Micah mentally as she took his hand in hers, before explaining to her grandmother that the wolves would only sit outside her door all night, so they would all be just fine in the one suite. It had taken some convincing, and eventually Ash just had to put her foot down and say she wasnt being separated from all of her group.

All in all, it had been a very long week for all of them. Kit being the only one of the 3 boys that the royal household seemed to be comfortable seeing around Ash. Micah and Mark, they treated with contempt, ignoring them whenever possible. But when they were near Ash, many people would act like they were Ash’s personal staff.

**********

The staff had been rushing round in a flurry of activity for hours now. The scents coming from the kitchen were delicious, enough to make anyone hungry, let alone the two practically starving wolves who had barely been fed all day because of all the preparations going on.

The grand ballroom, a huge room with high ceilings and giant, gothic pillars, a raised stage at one end of the room with a collection of thrones arranged on, was decorated beautifully with pastel floral arrangements and pale table cloths under a huge buffet. it was clear to Micah and Mark that Ash had had no hand in the decoration of the room, nor in the design of her dress, in fact she was still arguing with the dress maker now.

There was no way she could wear her blades without them causing some problem, either being too obvious and insulting the guests or not easily accessible. Plus the lack of pockets appeared to be a personal insult to Ash. Micah knew this was because she wouldnt be able to hide a pencil and scraps of paper, but the dress maker made the mistake of assuming his mate was a normal woman.

“Ma’am, you will have no need of a mobile communication device this evening, nor any cosmetic products” he informed her, a pleading note in his voice, clearly he was as desperate to get Ash into this dress as she was to stay out of it.

Ash merely scoffed at him and sent him from the room, bodily. He crashed through the doors and landed in Marks arms, from where he righted himself rapidly, brushing his clothing down, and stalking off without even an acknowledgment of Mark.

Moments later, Ash came out wearing a dress in burnt orange, the corset like strapless top had a swirling pattern picked out in gold and the skirt seemed to shimmer softly as she moved. The colours made her hair and eyes look amazing. Micah was lost for words as she thrust a small gold bag at him impatiently.

The boys were saved from any response by the arrival of Octavia, who bustled into the room and pushed through them all until she was stood before Ash

“Oh my Darling, Look at you, just stunning” she said softly, a tear in her eye and a hand on her chest “you look so much like your mother” she added with a sniffle as she leant forward to enfold Ash in her arms.

Octavia quickly pulled herself together, her momentary show of emotion quickly forgotten.

“Right then, Ashlyn, Mr Hightower, you will need to wait here until all the guests are assembled. someone will bring you down when it is time, Mr Ward” Octavia addressed Micah without even looking at him

“You and your friend should head down now as representatives of your pack.”

Ash was shaking her head before Octavia had even finished speaking.

“No, that’s not right. Micah is my Mate and Mark is his warrior, as Alpha he wouldnt go anywhere without backup. They should stay with me.” She told her grandmother firmly, her hand on Micah’s arm as she stood between Octavia and all 3 of the men surrounding her.

“Child, you are not marked, this is the standard for determining a mate in social situation in the werewolf community. By their own standards, you are just some waif they have kidnapped. Now let the adults deal with this” Octavia replied firmly, her eyes cold.

Ash could feel both Micah and Mark bristling with barely suppressed anger behind her. Kit was tugging on her arm, trying to pull her from the middle of the group as Octavia glared at the pair of wolves behind Ash.

“No, Octavia, you need to leave now. You have insulted my mate and me. If you want this ball to go ahead you go and make sure that every one who needs to know is aware that my Mate will be staying at my side.”

Ash wasn’t sure what it was that suddenly made Octavia take her seriously, but for some reason, she did. Giving a brusque nod, she turned and left the room.