His Sweet Little Mate

"Abby, you really ordered all of the attackers to be executed?" Dax rushed to Abby's bedroom right as the queen returned from the great hall with Alan in tow. He slid his gaze to the royal beta to check if the latter just bluffed him though the mindlink. However, his attention was steered back to the cold woman perched on the edge of the bed at her answer. "Yeah, I want to make an example out of this turn of events."

Shock couldn't even begin to cover what he felt right now, because the royal gamma felt like he didn't know the woman before him at all. A quick glance at Alan told him he wasn't the only one who discovered this anomaly.

She was so different from the easily scared, insecure girl they met all those months ago. Now she could more or less be considered similar to Micah, doing things fearlessly and decisively. They saw her making two such decisions tonight, one when she decided to make the news of the attack public, and the other when she coldly ordered for her attackers to be killed right away.

And this left them completely astonished. If only they had heard her thoughts when she believed she was really going to lose her life in the hands of those beasts tonight. That moment was a literal wake up call to her.

Abby hadn't really thought Arthur and his bootlickers would ever pose any real threat when they tried to nitpick everything about her or her way of doing things the past few months. But her mate's father took a drastic step tonight and she knew she couldn't afford to let her guard down again.

"Wow, you really didn't hesitate." Dax whistled, quickly recovering from the shock, as he imagined what the elders' faces would have looked like when they saw Abby finally put her foot down and assert her stance. "Some of them are so stubborn, they can't think past their prejudices and ego."All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

"Don't encourage her, moron." Alan felt different about this whole situation. "Abby, you do understand that they won't sit back doing nothing after what happened tonight, right?"

"Of course, they wouldn't, but we wouldn't be as vulnerable as before either. We will be ready from now on." Abby was quite confident in this matter.

"I give it two weeks before they try something else." The royal gamma looked excited for some reason. Alan gave him a stern look, for the man looked like a cat that had been promised some premium treats, but the gamma just shrugged his shoulders. He hated those old men and their stuck up attitudes since forever anyway.

*****

What Dax predicted didn't come true, because Fabron and the others didn't start sighing again before three weeks had passed.

Just like Abby wanted, people were made aware of that night's attack along with the death penalty of the royal warriors that partook in the same and it had a very promising effect. It actually pressured the elders so much, all of them started to be sort of on tenterhooks every minute since then.

At least, it let Abby do her things in peace for a few days, but like everything else, this was also short lived as Fabron chose to be difficult again, even though it seemed to be unintentional this time around.

"Why is there no progress in the search for Calpin?" The elder grumbled as he sat in his chair, while the others were still making their way to the great hall.

First it was about Micah's death, then about his funeral, now he found another issue to point out that Abby wasn't doing a good job.

"It makes me uncomfortable to even think about it." Mark joined him as the queen was still due to the court. "He has been silent all these months, save for a few minor incidents of rogue attacks with no casualties. What if he is planning something major again?" Micah's death indirectly instilled fear more potent than the one they had already been trying to ignore, and this silence only felt like the calm before the storm. It was really unsettling.

Just like that, the whole court became tumultuous before Abby joined them in the great hall to hold the court, but it was the pack representatives who broached this subject first.

"My Queen, what is happening with the investigation on that dark mage?" Toby, Black Claw pack's representative, asked when the morning meeting was about to be concluded.

The Black Claw pack suffered the most damage than any other pack when the rogues attacked them all those months ago. It was the first serious attack orchestrated by Calpin, and that bastard made a statement out of it.

The attack had cost them hundreds of pack members, including their alpha and his beta along with a considerable number of warriors. Their pack was still recovering from it.

So as the pack representative, Toby was more ruffled by this matter. It had been months, not to mention that that dark sorcerer had also killed the king, so stopping him had been the top most priority now.

With the same thought, the others also started to request an explanation from Abby regarding this matter.

On the other hand, Abby was a little surprised at his sudden question and the others' reaction that ensued. Even though there were a few instances where these men asked her the same questions, they had never seemed this agitated before. However, she was calm as usual as she addressed this subject. "That bastard is as slippery as an eel, but our trackers were on it."

Then she reiterated her own conclusions over the matter, where she expressed the recent activities were like some sort of reminders from Calpin, keeping in mind the fact that there hadn't been much damage even though those attacks had nothing in common with the normal rogue attacks.

They couldn't forget the possibility that they could be normal rogue attacks as well.

"But we can't rule out the possibility of Calpin's involvement." Pedro pointed out.

"I agree, that is why I've sent Mirella on this mission." Abby said, then going into detail how she would be able to aid their trackers in searching for Calpin.

However, these men weren't born yesterday, and perfectly knew Abby's intention to send the witch out there. She was still trying to search for her dead mate, the late king, and they couldn't bother to argue with her over this matter anymore.

Not only them, even the people didn't have any hope for the return of the king, while they understood that Abby was really pitiful for losing her mate, they all believed she was just holding onto nothing at this point.

It had been nearly five months since the news of Micah's death shook this entire kingdom, and Abby was almost seven months pregnant now, but there was still no positive news over Micah's possible survival.

So it was inevitable that their hopes would only dwindle long before they were completely snuffed out, but the loyal supporters of Micah never tried to discourage Abby, if anything they provided as much as support to the queen.

With her answer, that day's meeting could be considered to end on a good note, but Arthur found another excuse to take down Abby from the throne.

He slowly provoked the elders that it was also Mirella who had accompanied Micah to the forest after locating the rogues with Dax. He kept implying how unreliable that witch was, because she failed to trace Calpin's movements which resulted in that tragedy. However, he didn't have any intention to turn the royals against Mirella, his goal was entirely something else. He managed to implant doubts about Abby's capabilities, as she was a half witch. Mirella being a complete witch couldn't do anything when Calpin struck, so he implied Abby couldn't be relied upon when tragedy struck them again, blisteringly so.

It stirred unrest in the court again, but Alan and Dax were prepared enough to deflect all their doubts, as they ensured Abby could go through the last trimester of her pregnancy smoothly. With the royal beta and royal gamma backing her up, Arthur couldn't really stir much trouble for her, but this left him more edgy as all his plans and schemes failed one after another. "Arthur seems way too laid back nowadays," Dax said one evening, as he accompanied Abby for a walk in the back garden. The former king didn't try to make any big waves for the past few days. "But we can't let our guard down," Abby said, looking thoughtful. "Anything can happen, at any time. We just have to be careful enough."

For a moment, Abby thought back to her decision to start this open enmity with Arthur, because now she had to constantly look over her shoulder. It was not just Arthur who had his claws cut off, because Abby had also been living on tenterhooks after that incident. Arthur seemed crazy enough to kill his own kin once, there was no guarantee he wouldn't do it a second time.

But then, she couldn't think of a more suitable counter attack for that night's attack even now. Moreover, she couldn't deny it had been peaceful with all their cards out in the open.

As she said, they would just have to be careful. She had to focus on delivering her baby safely now that she was almost due any day now. Once her baby was born, she would be able to take care of other things like searching for Micah and also Calpin. The day of her delivery was fast approaching though, so it was only a matter of time before she could tap into her power more comfortably, not having to fear harming her child.

Mirella did say Abby was just overthinking, but overthinking was all she could do with her hormones all over the place due to pregnancy. It was ingrained so deeply in her blood, she didn't dare do anything she remotely considered harmful for the baby. Abby's delivery date was just around the corner, and the person who was even more scared for the date than Abby was, unsurprisingly Arthur.

The former king felt like every meeting in the great hall was an affair for the girl to taunt himself as she maneuvered skillfully while dealing with all sorts of things.

"She has become surprisingly reliable in the past few months." Fabron was walking beside Arthur, as the latter was heading back to his old tower after the meeting this morning.

"She is nothing if not for those annoying beta and gamma." Arthur still couldn't accept that Abby changed into someone who could endure all the pressure that came from sitting on the throne.

She was a weak woman, who couldn't even speak a few words to defend herself when the entire royal council blamed her for making Micah punish Ruby, when all that girl did was try to be friendly with her.

People from the court still weren't aware of Ezgar and Ruby's involvement in Micah's death, as Abby prevented Mirella and Dax from oversharing that detail.

So for Arthur to still think of Ruby as someone kindhearted was unavoidable, but he could be more honest with himself. Because he also knew Micah wouldn't act on impulse, but he just wanted to hate Abby, so that was what he would do.

It didn't matter if she didn't make a mistake or the other way around. But recently, his hatred was centered on the fact that the girl had managed to worm into people's hearts.

The food donation campaign at the start of the drought played a huge part in this, not to mention she also gained support from the councilors who were loyal to Micah.

Skillful or not, she had played her cards well, really well if you asked him, and Arthur couldn't help but agree that she was a worthy opponent.

Even without Alan and Dax behind her, she was no easy woman to take down and this didn't sit well with him.