The next morning, Lucianne walked in with Juan and Hale for breakfast. As soon as she stepped into the dining hall, the Lycans and werewolves in the room bent their knees by a few inches and lowered their heads in their direction. Juan, Hale and Lucianne stopped in their tracks and turned around. They looked at each other in confusion when Xandar was nowhere to be seen. Xandar was the only person who could make the whole room bow like that but he wasn’t in the room yet so why was everyone bowing?
“Uhh…I think it’s for you, Lucy.” Juan whispered. His suggestion made Lucianne flinch internally. Some of the people were already looking her way from the corner of their eyes, wondering if she was going to allow them to stand anytime soon.
She bowed at the crowd in return before resuming her standing position, and said in the
Xandar and Christian noticed Lucianne’s eyes glaze over so they waited for her to speak. Her tone turned serious, “A few members of the alliance want to speak with you both about the rogue Lycan. They were hoping that the two of you could spare five minutes.” “Juan!” Xandar called out like a brother with a smile and walked towards him with Lucianne. Christian followed closely behind. Juan was with Zeke, Zelena and Tate, and they greeted them, “My King. Your Grace.” Xandar and Christian both bowed back, and the wolves lifted their heads as soon as Xandar and Christian lifted theirs. Juan began, “Your Highness, Your Grace. Lucy mentioned that the rogue is due to regain consciousness this afternoon?”
At training, Lucianne had just finished demonstrating a technique to dodge the opponent’s punch from the side without losing balance. When she and Toby were moving on to the next pair of fighters. Someone yelled out, “My Queen.” “Oh, wow.” Toby said in surprise when he saw two Lycans approaching them. Both young. One dark-haired and one light-haired. Lucianne turned to face them as they bowed and their heads lifted when Lucianne’s head was lifted after bowing in return. “Good morning, ministers. Toby, this is Sir Weaver, the Minister of Environment. And this is his mate, Lord Yarrington, the Minister of Education. Ministers, this is one of my closest brothers on the battlefield, Gamma Tobias Tristan.” “Pleasure.” The Ministers took turns thrusting out
Lucianne took a step forward and look dead in Whitlaw’s eye as she said, “I know why a minister should exist. But I cannot fathom why you and Alfred Cummings exist, Minister Whitlaw. You both don’t even know the packs which need help in rogue attacks. You both couldn’t even tell me why we had to pay a ‘to-be-confirmed’ amount for Lycan warriors to help in a rogue attack. And, I distinctly remember that it was you Pierre Whitlaw, who told me to give up being a Gamma because I was asking too many questions.” Pierre’s face was turning white but Lucianne didn’t waver. “You want to talk about procedure? It was your procedures that made packs resort to borrowing funds from each other to support their pack members. It is because of procedures that relief applications almost never reach the final stage for monies to be disbursed. And you want to speak about permission?” Lucianne scoffed, “I didn
Lucianne took a deep breath before she began spilling the beans. “So you both already know the number of rogue attacks last year was, by far, the worst. And applications for relief following those attacks were undoubtedly a lot as well. But less than 10% of the submitted applications ever made it past the phase of ‘being reviewed’. And out of our own 132 allies who were attacked last year, we found that only twenty of them got their relief applications approved. But only four out of those had the funds disbursed to their pack. The rest still have ‘funds disbursement pending’ on their status. Here comes the part that really hurts.” She took another deep breath, and said, “We call the relief a gamble, like a Wheel of Fortune. And getting funds is like hitting the jackpot. So, packs who have successfully received funds are obliged to throw a pack party, just among their own pack members, to
It was a short drive to the department. When the three of them entered the building, the receptionists, all three of them, were clearly in shock. They weren’t expecting anyone beyond the company personnel to enter the office building that day, let alone the King and the Duke. When they pulled themselves together, they bowed and uttered, “Your Highness. Your Grace.” The King and Duke bowed in return, sending over a second wave of shock among them so their heads were partially lifted with their mouths gaped at the scene and their knees were still bent, even after the cousins stood.Xandar then smiled, “Please, stand when we stand, my people, because we stand through every prosperity and hardship together, as our Queen has taught me.” With his arm around Lucianne’s waist, he looked at her o
Ellia had a guilty expression and looked like she was about to breakdown in tears. Lucianne asked, “Ellia, what’s wrong? Are some of the archives missing?”She shook her head, “No. It’s…Goddess, I’m so sorry. Uh…a while ago, shortly after you ascended the throne, my King, a few of us were ordered to…manipulate the finances for…a few of the governing members. We were warned that…if the real information was leaked, they will target our families…our kids, when we come to have kids.” She then looked at Russell on Lucianne’s lap as Ben held their daughter in his arms.The three of them were stunned. Lucianne was the first to recover, “Ellia, what are you saying? Does it mean what you’re printing now has been manipulated?”
“Yeah, come in!” Ellia called out. Edward and Tim entered her office, and bowed. When they stood with the royals, they went over to carry the two stacks waiting for them on Ellia’s desk. Xandar put Russell on the floor, and the little boy ran straight for Lucianne’s leg and hugged it while tugging her dress to get her attention. When Lucianne felt a warmth wrap around her leg, she looked down and saw Russell. She bent down with a smile and the little boy said in a sad voice, “Are you leaving, Aunt Lucy?” “I am, Russell. It was so nice to meet you. I hope we’ll see each other again.” Lucianne said in the same gentle tone she used with him earlier as she caressed his cheek with her thumb.
When Dr Yeil asked if she herself knew about her own peculiarity, Xandar asked Lucianne to tell him about the childhood game she played with Juan and a few others. The doctor noted it and asked whether she had any other peculiarities, apart from her abnormal resistance to silver.“I have a striped tail, does that count?” Lucianne asked curiously.“I’m sorry, my Queen. A what?” The doctor asked in total confusion.Lucianne explained how her white wolf had grey stripes only on her tail. Xandar listened attentively but embarrassment soon crept into his being. How can he proudly declare that he loved her when he didn’t even know that distinct part of Lucianne’s wolf? He knew that it had white fur with blue eyes because h