Lady In Red

57

The king's strides echoed across the hallways causing his guards to hold their necks high but keep their eyes on the ground at their

feet in fear. Xerxes never cared for such gestures though. Complete loyalty or nothing was his motto.

"What has my mother been up to."

"She had a physician come to see her. Her health seems to be deteriorating. Her maid has asked his majesty to visit her. Perhaps it might make her feel better."

The king walked in silence.

"The Queen Mother has asked his Majesty to forgive her. She said it was merely out of a need to protect you from any liabilities that may come." Andrew paused halting as the King stopped on his tracks. His neck turned to his right, slightly straight at his advisor.

"Liabilities?" He asked. He didn't need an answer from Andrew.

"I recognize no mother who will not accept my wife and the rightly crowned Queen." He stated sternly.

"You will not mention her name unless you find any more evidence of her crimes." The King's words caught Andrew in slight shock. The fact that he was ready to incriminate his mother because she did not accept a Human.

How many humans had the King killed? Thousands. More. How many times had the King tried to keep the family's bloodline pure? Marrying his cousins to their respective mates just to preserve their blood instead of making alliances. And now, All Andrew saw was the obsession of his King to keep his Queen safe and away from any harm.

It confused him. A man so ruthless in denying his bother from leaving the kingdom and traveling so he could find his mate and secure another branch of his family tree was now loyal to human women. What changed?

Was it truly because of Love or a real bond? Or was he just so obsessed with that Lady that he had shut his eyes to whatever he had done before?

Andrew wondered what would she feel when she found out how their army had massacred villages and towns to establish their dominance. Human feared their kingdom for a reason. She did not understand where she was. The Queen was simply a pawn in her prior Kingdom's game.

If the Queen knew. Andrew wondered how she would feel. Id she knew that bearing a son or a daughter has nothing to do with her duty here. Because the people would never accept it either way. She was bought only as a name-sake Queen. Acknowledged but never accepted.

Have you wondered if she would be locked away or put as a puppet Queen?

"The King had no desire to do that" Andrew stated staring at his file as his guard played with the globe.

"Do you think you can accept her?"

"I accept what my King accepts." That was what Andrew remembered saying.

"Anything else?"

Andrew's gaze snapped back to the King, "We have some discussions to make about people trespassing the borders."

"We shall speak on that at noon."

"I shall let them hear that." he bowed, replying as the King turned and walked towards his chambers.

*~*

"How is my son?" the King's mother inquires, reclining comfortably on her couch. One hand drapes over the armrest, and the other rests in her physician's grasp.

"Well, Madam."

She let out a smirk and it fizzled back to a sad smile.

"I suppose sons always betray their mothers for some lowly girl. " She remarked bitterly, taking her medicine. The man, staring at the floor, unable to meet the Queen Mother's eyes, stood silent before replying.

"He has not betrayed you, he simply thought you should rest."

"Rest in peace is it? In my bed. He rather wished I was dead !"

"Madam-"

She snapped her eyes at him shutting his mouth within a moment.

"You are my most trusted physician, Wallace. You cannot disobey me. I am a Queen. " She stated, leisurely walking across her chamber and sitting before her mirror.

Robert Wallace, her physician for twenty years sat there holding his tongue.

" You hear your wife is ill-"

His eyes snapped to her before falling to the ground. He stood up, clenching his hands and kneeling before her.

" Spare my family, my Queen."

She smiled. That dead smile was the reason she had thousands of murders in her hands. Leaning forward and placing her hands over her knees, she stared at him before speaking.

"Then do as you're told ."

He nodded.

"My son may be the King, but I still command all the guards. No one can disregard my influence so facilely. Having been the Queen before, I understand how the court works," she remarked as her maid brushed her hair. Her eyes stared right into the eyes of her physician through the mirror. Sunken eyes, grey hair, wrinkly skin. The once healthy and dominant Queen sat on her vanity l,ooking old and tired.

"You will never be disposed of your Royal Majesty. Do not worry. We have a maid under our hands still."

She smiled, evil setting within them as she nodded.

"You know what to do then."

He nodded scurrying away.

"What life have I lived with my own sacrifices? I resort to using a servant to get rid of my enemy?" She pondered standing up, with her hand in her closest hand, they walked towards the tea table.

"You have suffered a lot. It will be over soon. Your son is simply bending through the bonds of being mate's-"

"They are no MATE'S my son could never have a human as his mate." She sneered at the maid.

"The king could bond with whoever he wished. It doesn't make her his mate. Unfortunately, he has marked her. There will be no going back on the marriage alliance. We cannot afford an imputation, we need her dead."

"That will affect His Majesty's health and well-being, my Queen."

"Well then. That would be even better to deem him unfit to rule."

The maid's eyes frowned and her Madam noticed.

"I do love my son. But I promised my father to never let the blood of this Lycan family be tainted. With just filthy humans. We resort to murder and m******e over marriage alliances. Our army could've defeated those kingdoms but he chose peace. Just like his father."

She dwells upon how she brought her son up. He was molded into being a tyrant. A bloody King who would bring wrath upon any kingdom who defied them. A man who had to stab his brother to deem himself worthy. But she did not recognize the man he was today. Accepting a human in his bloodline. Tainting it.

She had bewitched him. And she needed to die. Her son was no longer a King in his mother's eyes. He was simply a love-sicken man protecting a weakling.