“Don’t you know how it turned out for my parents?” Ariana brought it up the next day at dinner with Daniel. She hadn’t seen her parents since yesterday morning and was sorry she hadn’t heard from them. Perhaps Daniel could help her with this. “Trenton showed them about three houses yesterday. Two were bigger. He guessed they might like to use the space later, you know, when there are more grandchildren...” Daniel paused, waiting for her reaction. To his surprise, Ariana blushed almost immediately. He knew that she would have her hands already full with her first child, but he hoped that his own children could follow soon. “However, in the end, they took the smaller one. There is still one extra spacious bedroom where you or their grandchildren can sleep.” Daniel finished, eyes still on his partne

Ariana walked down the long aisles behind Trenton, who led her to her parents’ new house. Although she wondered if she should really go to them, especially when Daniel reminded her of them remodeling their new house. She wasn’t even sure if they would have a place to sit. “Here it is.” Trenton stopped in front of a slender, two-story house. From the outside, the house looked ordinary. It fits in stylishly with the entire street. Simple pastel shutters and flower pots on the windowsills, currently without flowers. It was obvious no one had really lived in the house for a long time. Ariana saw a set of windows that her mother hadn’t washed yet. She couldn’t see inside through them. The windows on the second floor were wide open. This marked the ongoing reconstruction of the second floor. According to Ariana’s assumption, her parents first wanted to restore the

Ariana wasn’t quite sure what to do. She could not endanger her unborn child, so fighting the girl was out of the question. As they exited the tavern and made their way straight away from the inn, Ariana became confused. They didn’t go back to the castle, nor did they go towards her parents’ house, where she could discreetly signal her father. They just went deeper into the smaller backside aisles. “Where are you taking me?” Ariana wanted to know. She kept her emotions under control and tried to think rationally. There had to be a way out of this mess, but she hadn’t seen it yet. “It is not important. Smile nicely and nothing will happen to you.” The young woman replied in a low tone. All the while, she subtly looked back to see if anyone was following them. She felt someone’s eyes on her, but sh

“Escort his people back to the border. I don’t want to see any of them in our territory.” Daniel gave a direct order to his general, Trenton. “You can’t be serious. We should execute them on the spot. What do you plan to do with the Lycan king?” David Parker, the minister of war, used a sharp tone against his king. “Of course I’ll let him go. What can I do now?” Daniel answered him calmly, although he absolutely did not like David’s aggressive tone. Daniel did not want to start an open conflict so close to his capital. He had enough warriors inside the city to handle a single Lycan, but Daniel didn’t know how many of his men Marcus had nearby. Although Marcus faced him alone in the forest and there was no sign of his people within fi

“You wanted to tell me something earlier, but your parents interrupted us,” Daniel reminded Ariana of her unspoken request. Ariana had to think for a moment to remember what this was all about. It didn’t take long for her thoughts to turn back to the moment she was in the infirmary with only him. “I would like to ask you for a teacher.” Ariana gave no explanation. Daniel didn’t know which teacher she meant. He couldn’t decipher what exactly she wanted. “Probably several teachers. As I said before, we are not an aristocratic family. Although I only have the usual education from school, I am not suited to be your queen with the knowledge of the world I have now. Furthermore, you can probably imagine the manner in which teaching is carried out in schools in a country that preaches strong Lycan propaganda.