"How is she doing? Any improvement?" The Queen asked the royal physician as they both stood beside Tyra's bed, while Ivan stood by the window.
"She is still unconscious and weak," the royal physician said, and the queen sighed.
"Do you have any idea how long she is going to be this way?" Ivan asked, but the royal physician shook his head.
"That, I cannot say."
"You can leave," the Queen said, and the royal physician bowed to them before walking away in fear. He had every reason to be scared now because the entire kingdom was suddenly in a mess.
"That's the thing I hate about Omegas. They are so weak," Ivan said with disapproval, and the Queen turned to glare at him.
"Don't speak about your sister in such a manner," she scolded, but Ivan paid no heed to her words.
"See how pathetic she looks," Ivan continued with a shake of his head. "It's so difficult to acknowledge her as my sister." He said with disgust.
The queen eyed him unpleasantly as she said, "Are you trying to mock me for birthing an Omega? Do you think you hate it more than I do?" She asked him harshly.
He finally got the hint that she was angry and kept his mouth shut.
"The least you can do right now is shut up and not try to annoy me. I already have a lot to think about."
"Whatever you say." He muttered to himself.
"I learned that you visited Luciana a while ago. Why did you go there?" The Queen asked, changing the subject.
"I went to see how she was doing," Ivan said with a scowl, thinking about Luciana's rude words and how she had turned him away. He had always been a good husband to her. Why couldn't she swallow her pride and apologize to him?
"Stay away from her. Immediately after we have taken care of Princess Amber, and your sister regains consciousness, your wedding to Benedicta would take place as planned. Don't mess up our plans by being careless," she warned, and Ivan smirked.
"It's not like Harold stands a chance against me now. No one would want him to be king, not after what his wife has done. And who knows? Seeing as he is taking so much time to wake up, he just might not survive," Ivan said with a note of satisfaction in his voice, and the queen shook her head.
"You are not curious to know who could have hurt him?" The Queen asked, and Ivan shook his head.
"We both know that Harold has offended a lot of people, and he has a lot of enemies. They probably had been waiting for the right time to attack him and they finally found it," Ivan said dismissively, and the queen looked at him without saying a word, wondering whether or not it was Ivan who had done it.
From the moment she learned about Harold's attack during the hunt, she had been suspicious of Ivan. But Ivan had insisted that he wasn't responsible for it. A part of her wished he was since if he wasn't responsible for it, that confirmed her suspicion that someone was messing with them.
"Harold getting hurt, the king's health becoming worse, Beth dying, and Tyra getting stabbed by Princess Amber was simply fate? All at the same time?" She asked, letting him know that she didn't believe that.
One would think she should be relaxed now that everything was working out in her favour, but she could not stop being uneasy.
"Of course! The goddess wants me to ascend the throne. Everything is working out well. Why are you always worried and suspicious of everything?" He asked, sounding annoyed.
She knew better than to believe that all of this was a coincidence. The sudden worsening of the king's illness, Harold's attack, Beth's and Tyra's attacks, as well as Princess Amber's imprisonment. She had a feeling that the person who had sent her that letter was behind most of this. She wasn't as stupid as Ivan to entirely believe that a mere human like Princess Amber had overpowered a strong Beta like Beth and killed her.
There was more to everything that was going on, and as much as she was glad that getting rid of Princess Amber in this way was good for their plans, as it would mean that no matter what happened, the aristocrats would never take the side of a werewolf whose bride had murdered one of their own, she knew that she couldn't afford to let down her guard either, as she didn't know if she was going to be the next person to be attacked. She would have also loved to make Harold watch as they sentenced his bride to death, but then, she was still worried about what Harold would do when he woke up to realize what had happened in the palace. Wouldn't he think she had been the one to plan this whole thing out?
A knock came on the door, and Damian entered the room. His eyes went to the bed first before he greeted the queen and Ivan.
"How did it go? Have you seen her?"
He shook his head. "I cannot find the maid anywhere," Damian said with regret.
"So you are saying a maid was able to escape from this palace and no one knew about it? A mere kitchen servant?" Ivan asked, annoyed.
"I am still looking all over for her," Damian said with his head down.
"Look for her. She has to tell us exactly what she saw that night." The queen ordered angrily, and Damian bowed to her before looking at the bed one last time, and he left the room.
If they had known she would disappear like this, they would have insisted on questioning her some more that night after they found the three unconscious bodies. But they had been too busy trying to tend to Harold and Tyra, and Beth's father hadn't taken the death of his daughter quite easily, especially when the maid told them what happened in fear.
She was supposed to be treated by the physician so she would be in the right frame of mind while telling them what had happened, but she disappeared the next morning.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l