Chapter 186

The Queen stopped speaking for a few long minutes, clearly composing herself. I waited patiently for her to be ready to speak again because I could only imagine how overwhelming reliving all of this had been for her.

No matter what the king wanted me to believe, the evidence in the Alpha Archives completely corroborated Queen Yarrow’s story about abuse and poisoning. And if she was living in secret in the home of a disgraced alpha, then she was hardly living the sort of high life that would come from the money the sort of crimes I had uncovered would have built for her.

She had no wealth, just her life.

When Queen Yarrow leveled her gaze on me next and opened her mouth to speak, I was ready to listen again. This time, with zero skepticism.

I was no longer looking for proof. I had my proof.

“For as much as I worry about myself and telling you these truths,” she said, “I’ve already been living in fear of the king for years. Are you fully prepared to create this kind of adversary for yourself? If you take what I’ve told you and you publish it, it could very well be the end of your life.”

I bit my lip and nodded. “I already knew that,” I said. “I never imagined that the king was someone to be trifled with. I’ve already had attempts on my life. And that was way back at the very beginning when I first uncovered corruption.”

“I’ve been arrested and abused,” I told her. “I have no illusions about how this is going to go for me. But I can’t just sit back and watch while the king tears apart our country. He is not a young man, but he’s also not an old man. He’s got years in which to ruin us.”

“And what happens when and if he dies without an heir?” I asked. “Do we dissolve? Are werewolves going to be forced to live amongst other shifters? Or worse, vampires? Or even humans?”

I shook my head. “I have too much pride as a werewolf to let that happen.”

“You are the best sort of werewolf,” she said. “Then again, I knew that from the moment you walked in. Your scent is like all the best parts of a spa.” She paused, pressing her lips together. “There’s something oddly familiar about it.”

Then she shook her head. “I have contact with so few people. I’d know if I’d run across you before you made a name for yourself. Or you grew up an orphan, right?”

I nodded.

“I probably did a charity appearance with your orphanage when you were small. As for the problem at hand. The only real way to save Orlune is for the king to have an heir. Since I can’t, and I’m not going to die just so he can take another wife to be nothing but a womb he beats, I don’t know what to tell you.”

“I’ll still expose him,” I promised. “If for no other reason, then the people deserve to know who to blame for their problems.”

She nodded and smiled at me, but her smile continued to carry a deep amount of sadness. “Then I wish you the best of luck, Miss Laurentia. You are certainly going to need it. After this, I’m going to have to find a new place to hide because, unlike you, I have no power to take down my husband.”

Her expression turned bitter. “Even if I use my social presence, all the public will see is a spat between a sour wife and her husband. He’s created an atmosphere where any complaints I make simply look like I’m trying to ruin his reputation as opposed to you, who have already built a reputation for yourself based on truth. And you have a nationwide platform in which people will believe. Meaning if the worst were to happen, at least you’d go out a martyr.”

Queen Yarrow stood, and I hopped to my feet to join her. She walked to the door and opened it, pointing me out. “Thank you again for listening. You did the one thing that I really wanted, which was to hear my truth. And once again, good luck to you. If you survive this, perhaps we can be friends on the other side.”

I gave her a smile, without much hope behind it, and hurried out the door. The double doors to the library opened, and Theo joined me in the hallway.

“How did it go?” he asked.

“About as I expected,” I said. “The Alpha King is definitely the bad guy. This is a Queen living in hiding, in fear of her life. And it’s just as we feared. She warned me of the same thing we already know. If and when I publish this story, I’m going to be in the crosshairs. If I’m lucky, I might end up like her—in hiding.”

He squeezed me in a hug and then let me go. “I’ll follow you into hiding it if I need to and make it my mission to ensure you survive.”

I leaned over and pecked a little kiss on his cheek. “You’re a good man, Theo. If your efforts to keep me safe don’t work, don’t throw away your life for nothing.”

He nodded. “I’ll try to keep that in mind,” he said.

“The Queen was also pretty clear that the only safe way to go about removing the king was if there were an heir to the throne.”

By this point, we’d reached the outside and gotten in the car. Queen Yarrow might have had a manservant, but on my second trip back through the house, I realized that she really was living with a bare-bones staff. This huge place was virtually empty. Another detail illustrating her fugitive state.

“But there is no heir,” Theo said, cutting through the last of my thoughts as I watched the estate fall away on the road behind us.

“There were rumors of one,” I pointed out. “Not just in social circles, but in some of the doctors’ reports. It certainly looks like, based on the medical attention she received, that Queen Rosemary carried a child nearly to term. Everything also points to poison.”

A scowl settled on my face. “Even Queen Yarrow said that the king had tried to poison her. She didn’t have any proof, other than the fact that she was falling ill, much like the first queen, until he left on a tour of the country. Then she quickly regained her health.”

“Suspicious,” Theo agreed.

“That’s when she said she took her stuff and fled, going deep into hiding so that he couldn’t find her. He’s obviously had no reason to go searching deep because I’m sure he could have found her if he really needed to,” Theo pointed out.

“He’s obviously been waiting for the opportune moment,” I added. “We already know he’s good at plotting and biding his time.”

“It all makes sense,” Theo mused, nodding in time with his thoughts. “And it makes me fear even more for your safety. Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I know it’s a risk, but this isn’t the kind of monster we can let lead our nation. I’m going to finish releasing everything I’ve found. I’m going to do whatever I need to do to make sure that Orlune ends up in better hands.”

I clenched my fists on my lap. “And I’m going to start by trying to track down this missing doctor.”

“I’ll do whatever I can to help you,” he said.

“I know you will. But I think this time it needs to be Charles who helps me out. The speculations about a child aren’t the sort of rumors that made it widely into the public. From what I saw, they were largely circling amongst the alpha community. And I’ll need him to help me get in with them.”