No Longer Hidden {A Royal Wolves Story #3}

No Longer Hidden- Chapter Four

Chapter Four

I gulped as my heart raced. Just beyond those doors in front of me was the room where my life will be taking another turn. Another twist. And this time, I was walking into it knowing full well what might happen.

As Daemon held my hand, I closed my eyes going back to the day after we had told Bethany's parents that my brother and I were royals. I had been shocked when Anthony had come over and wanted to speak to me alone. He had this look that I hadn't seen him ever have. He looked slightly downcast.

We had gone upstairs to the attic. To my quiet place that I loved having in such a crazy house. Anthony remained standing when I sat down on my couch. He held a book in his hand.

"Do you want to sit?"

He nodded. "In a minute." A sigh came out as he opened his small leather bound removing a small crinkled old fashion photograph. I took it when he offered it to me. "I wanted to show you this."

Looking down at the photo, I saw it was a photo of a group. Mostly men surrounding a woman holding two babies. She had her hair in a long braid. Her outfit looked to be that of a servant woman's back in the day.

Anthony took a seat next to me with a soft smile on his face. "This picture was taken three months before the uprising."

I looked at Anthony shocked and he smiled. "My family had kept this picture as a reminder." He looked down. "How we had failed to protect one of the royal family."

He looked to the picture and pointed to one of the children in the woman's arms. "That baby was the ruling family's heir. The next to ascend to the Throne of Wolves."

My forehead scrunched as I looked between the two babies. "How can you tell which one is which?"

Anthony chuckled. "You can tell by the nanny's stance." He pointed to the woman's hip. "See how her hip is pointing just a little bit more to that baby." Then he pointed to her head that had the slightest of tilts. "And her head is pointing to the heir too. Only those closest knew that and my ancestors only told their children from generation to generation which child was the heir."

My eyes still darted between the children. "They look like they could be identical twins."

A smile came back to Anthony's face. "They do, don't they? The other baby was her son. Born a mere four days after the heir. She was the only one beloved by the royal family enough to take care of their little baby for them when they couldn't."

He pointed to a man off to the left. One who held his chin high and proudly. "That's my ancestor who I was named after." He smiled wearily. "Anthony Garne." He looked at me. "Our last name changed after the uprising."

I frowned at him. "Why would your last name change after the uprising?"

"My ancestor had been the head guard assigned to protect the heir. He had watched as they killed the heir himself." He sighed looking down. "That was the worst disgrace ever for someone whose family devoted all their lives to protecting the royal family."

I placed my hand on his and he looked at me. "I'd love to hear the story, but I'd tell you right now, to me your family isn't at all disgraced. What happened wasn't their fault."

Another sigh. "That's sweet, but it was still a disgrace to watch the heir die before him."

He brought the book to me as he opened it. It was a journal in an old language. "This was my ancestor's journal where he wrote about his life." He chuckled at my puzzled face. "It's written in an old language of our kind. Very few can actually speak it any longer and not many can read it these days." He beamed. "Thankfully it was handed down in my family to read it."