Chapter 190
Gideon’s POV
E55 vouchers
With all the corruption running rampant in my pack, it was difficult to know who to trust. I had a few guards that I had known most of my life who I trusted, as well as Xavier. But in the end, there was no one I trusted more than Claire.
As Raven, she had been my right hand, and the defender and protector of my children. I’d trusted her with everything, and that was no different now that she was revealed to be Claire. In fact, now I trusted her even more than I had back then.
She also knew the ins and outs of this pack more than anyone else, both as a once–member and then as an observer, when she had been here as Raven.
If anyone could help me clean the corruption from this pack, it was her.
So, after returning to the apothecary, when I found her waiting for me in one of the sitting rooms, I joined her.
“Did you learn anything?” she asked me.
“A few things,” I said, and shared the little that Darius had said and then the ripped page from the apothecary that pointed a delivery of poison straight to his door all those years ago.
We sat in comfortable silence for a minute, as I gave her time to think that over. Then, I made my plea.
“Someone let Daphne inside that banquet hall,” I said. “We don’t know who. But I want to. Whoever it was, was either naïve or malicious.” I shook my head. “I’ve been working on removing those disloyal from the pack, but some of them are deeply entrenched. I can use another pair of eyes.”
“You want my help?” she asked.
“I need it, Claire,” I told her. She had to know how important she as to me, not just as someone I admired, but as someone I could depend on as a partner. Someone to help me with the pack.
Maybe I was getting ahead of myself. She was keeping her distance. Maybe she didn’t want that kind of responsibility either.
“I’ll do it,” she said quickly, surprising me.
I knew having Claire’s assistance would help, but I had no idea just how helpful that would be. Claire’s elevated status as royal princess had earned her fresh loyalty in the pack. It seemed, as Lena’s daughter, she was even more highly regarded.
Those that were old enough fondly remembered the former Luna Queen. Claire was like having her returned to them. At least that was what they said. The council embraced her at once, and many of the guard followed.
She was so popular, in fact, that some of the guards who had seen others act in disloyal ways stepped forward to tell her Without her, they would have otherwise remained quiet. They certainly wouldn’t have told me anything.
She approached me with the things she had been hearing a few different times. She was careful with anonymity, not wanting to share things that could incriminate those who were brave enough to step forward. I was more than happy to
allow her to take the lead on this.
Everything was fine, right up until it wasn’t.
Claire burst into my office one midmorning. “I know who the traitor is.”
Claire’s POV
1/3
11:05 am PPD
Chapter 190
E55 vouchers
I was pleased to have more responsibility in the pack, helping Gideon uncover the traitors in his ranks, though admittedly it did add some stress to me. This kind of stress was familiar, almost welcome. This was warrior work, and as warrior work, I could focus on this with full intensity.
If I was giving this job my all, I wasn’t thinking about my confusing feelings for Gideon. I still wasn’t ready to face those yet.
I was shocked that so many people trusted me when they learned that of my lineage, though maybe I shouldn’t have been. Heritage and pack was everything to werewolves. Before, I had been an outsider and relatively untrusted, but now I was part of the royal pack, which made me instantly accepted.
This irritated me a little. Why hadn’t I earned this trust from the pack in the past? Why did who my father was change my reputation? I was still the same person.
But I couldn’t allow that annoyance to get in the way of what was actually helping me succeed at this job. Because people trusted me now, they were telling me things, and I was able to convey those things to Gideon, who could act on them to help clean the corruption from the pack.
I tried to protect those that came to me as much as I could. But then, finally, a break!
Someone had told me that their roommate in the barracks was a traitor.
After telling Gideon, I followed him to the barracks, where the accused soldier’s personal effects were searched. Among them, were handwritten love letters to and from Daphne.
The soldier who had turned him in shook his head. “She’s just using you.”
“She loves me!” the accused shouted. He turned to me. “I don’t care what anyone else says. You aren’t the true princess and you never will be!”
“Take him away,” I said. “If you love Daphne and her family so much, you can join them in jail.”
“You are a liar!” the accused continued shouting, even as the others were dragging him away. “Princess Susanne is the only true princess! You only want the money and the power!”
The man was finally dragged away, but his words seemed to linger, like they had echoed off the walls. Everyone in the room was looking at me. And suddenly, just like that, the trust I had been given only recently, after having been revealed to be a princess, was taken away.
People were glancing at me with suspicion, the goodwill gone.
Gideon read through the letters from Daphne, and then showed them to me. Mostly, other than the disgusting love language, the letters included all of the things the man had spewed at me. That I wasn’t a princess. That I was an imposter. That Susanne was the true princess.
Why would Daphne defend Susanne so hard?
I didn’t know, but in this moment, I had bigger problems.
“My birthright has been proven,” I told them, “The Alpha King and I tested our blood, and he is my father. I don’t want anything from the royal family, but to know who I am.”
I was starting to feel like a broken record saying that, again and again. But it didn’t seem to matter how many times I said it,
no one ever seemed to believe me.
“I am still the same woman who has been here among you, helping to protect Leo and Gideon,” I said,
This satisfied a few of them, but others, not so much.
2/3
Chapter 190
E55 vouchers
Gideon took my hand and led me from the room. I was so frazzled that I allowed him to do so, and I kept holding onto him even after we were outside.
I needed his support. At least he believed in me, even if no one else in the world did.
“I told them the truth,” I said.
“I know,” he replied. “But I don’t know if it will be enough.”
3/3
