All The Queen's Monsters (The Queen's Slave, Book 3)

Eighteen: Reconciliation

"I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in but you can't. How you hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside."

—Susanna (Winona Ryder), Girl, Interrupted (1999)

SEVEN MONTHS PRIOR TO REUNION

"Let's You Fly"

By: Bryar

E M I L E E

Months following Rome were the hardest. A lot of us had no idea what to do or where to go. We had no leader, had no guidance but the fierce desire to survive. So when we landed back on soil, it wasn't a surprise to me when we were rudely greeted by a barricade of soldiers and one particularly bitchy vampire. Camille and I's relationship continued to wane, and this was undoubtedly my fault. I think part of it is due to the distance between the forest and my wolf's desire to create something new with her; a life. But when I thought about it, all I could think about or remember was the freezing cold, and the day I watched my older sister's blood stain the snow. I hadn't told anyone, not even Azalea, that she had been pregnant when she died, and I could hardly think of it before I was struggling to reign back the primal rage within me. I wanted so much to be the mate Camille deserved, and to be able to share something like that with her, but I couldn't get past the demons in my mind. In Rome, I'd often work closely with Kore and Elizabeth to hone that anger, turning it into physical strength instead of unnameable violence, and for a while that worked. But eventually my desire for revenge started to creep back up again and I could only sit back and watch as I took it out on the woman I loved the most. Now as we head to New Mexico, tracking the first lead of Azalea we'd had since the fall of our pack, the anger inside me only festered.

And now here I stood, facing the enemy.

With Kore's help from the sky, we'd been able to scout ahead and get a head start while simultaneously studying Ravenna's new puppet and army. We learned their ways, their habits, which unbeknownst at the time, lead us to the location of the traffickers who had bought Owen and Althea, the Prince of Wolves and the African Maned Alpha.

The silence moments before battle was the worst part. My paws were firm on the ground, and I didn't need to turn my head to see Sienna beside me, her scarring from the last time she faced Ravenna's men proudly on display. I knew her bow was knocked and ready, and her eyes flinty, filled with just as much hate as me. My lip curled in a growl as a figure stepped forward to meet us. Natasha, Elizabeth and Camille's sister, strode forward atop a large dapple grey stallion, her hair tied back in a severe bun and a malicious sneer on her lips that made me ache to rip her throat out. I vibrated with low snarls, almost outside of myself when a body to my left appeared, and the sickly sweet scene of feline filled my nose. Elizabeth's gold-slit gaze caught my yellow one, and although we were night and day in species, I understood the meaning behind her expression. We were alarmingly low in numbers, but not exactly outnumbered yet. After Elizabeth led the rabid army of vampires to Ravenna's doorstep, many of her soldiers and citizens rebelled, escaping the capital with their families.

Wait. Don't rush. It's what she wants. Camille's mind touched mine, a warning if nothing else.

Begrudgingly and at the request of the former King and Queen of wolves, we offered the ones who ran sanctuary in return for information, and to our sheer luck, a few of the escaping soldiers used to be palace guards.