Chapter 70 - The Alpha Queen

The room was dark. Really dark. Strips of light appeared through the cracks in the shutter blinds above her bed. They were firmly closed even though it appeared to be the middle of the day.

Rae wiped the tears that had pooled in her eyes from earlier. She recounted her conversation with Kai as a little girl outside of the castle that she now knew as her family home. It had felt like a dream, but she knew that it wasn't. She'd spoken with Kai through her thoughts, she connected him and felt the power of their mate bond even though they were miles apart.

She tentatively ran her hands over the raised bit of skin on her neck, Kai's claiming mark. With thoughts of her past life returning, she felt scared that all that happened with Kai wasn't real either. Touching it, she couldn't help but feel relief at finding it. The mark was there, it was real. It wasn't conjured up or faked, it was tangible evidence of her mate and her time with him.

That place she had subconsciously taken him to in her mind had awakened thoughts and memories that she never even knew she had forgotten. The faces of her mother and father, her brothers and sisters. She could see them all so clearly now.

*'How could I have forgotten them? How could I forget who I was?'* she asked herself. She felt like she had betrayed her family by forgetting them, by forgetting who she was, Raeliana, the youngest daughter of Zeke and Maeve, King and Queen of the Eastern Territory, Aldia.

Feelings of guilt quickly bubbled to the surface. She felt guilty for surviving that massacre when everyone else in her family had died. Years of buried grief and emotion built up in a matter of seconds then welled up in her chest. The feeling was unbearable. She pulled her knees up in to her chest and curled herself up in to the tiniest ball in the small wooden bed. Her mouth opened and closed as quiet pained sobs spilled from her mouth. She kept pulling her knees further up in to her chest and wrapped her arms around them tightly to try and ease the pain that wracked her body. Nothing had felt as painful as this. Her quiet sobs eventually turned in desperate cries, cries for a family and a life that was ripped away from her in the most traumatic way possible.

Engulfed in her grief, Rae failed to notice as the door to her small room flew open.

"Ady?" Gabriel called in concern as he walked in to the room.

Rae didn't even move, she couldn't move. She was paralysed by the intense emotion that she was experiencing and just rocked in the bed as she continued to howl out her pain.

Gabriel took one look at her and quickly walked up to her bedside. He was desperate to comfort her, to reassure her. Her appearance had already changed and it was quickly evident to him that the seal on her had completely broken. Her light brown hair had changed back to its original onyx black and she felt different. He could feel how her energy had changed. She was no longer the little Ady he knew. He could feel power and dominance radiating off her. He wanted to hold her, but something in him and his wolf made him feel hesitant, as though he was no longer allowed to be as familiar with her as he once was.

"Ady" he called quietly again. He tentatively reached out a hand to stroke her head. Just as his hand touched her Rae quickly snapped out of her grief. The guilt and sadness she had felt quickly switched to anger. Anger at the ones who caused all this pain, but also anger at the ones that made her forget who she was and where she had come from.

"Don't touch me!" Rae swatted Gabriel's hand away and sat upright and back in the bed. Her legs still felt a bit wobbly but strength was quickly returning to her.

Gabriel recoiled his hand back. Her reaction to him stung. Not physically, but emotionally. He had always looked out for her, they had grown up as siblings and now she was looking at him like he was a stranger, or even worse a potential enemy. She looked at him with eyes he had never seen before. She was cornered but primed to lash out and fight at any given moment.

If her seal had completely broken like he thought, he knew that she would be confused, angry and hurt. Mya had explained to him before how the seal worked and that if it ever broke, all the memories and trauma she experienced just before the seal was activated would resurface in an instant.

When Gabriel intercepted her and Kai in the forest, he had overheard Kai confessing that he knew that Adalyn, Mya and him were using fake names and from the look in her eyes, she now knew that was all true.

"Ady, it's me. It's Gabe," he said softly.

"You knew, didn't you?!" Rae erupted, completely ignoring his words. "About who I am!"

Gabriel tightened his lips. He didn't know what to say to her. Whether he spoke the truth or lied it would hurt her either way.

"Didn't you?!!" Rae shouted at him again.

Gabriel couldn't help but look looked down at the ground. Her eyes flashed black. The intensity in them and her few small words instantly made him and his wolf want to avert her gaze.

"Yes..." he said quietly.

"Since when?" she continued. She demanded answers and she wanted them now. She could feel her blood starting to boil and Tara was right there with her, spurring her on.

Gabriel remained silent.

"Since when?! Since we first met?!" she roared again.

Gabriel took a deep breath before responding. Things were going to get heated really quickly, and he had to emotionally prepare himself. "Yes. I knew who you were from the beginning, but I can explain," he continued.

"Explain?! Explain what Gabriel?! That you and Mya have been lying to me, lying to me damn near my whole life?!" Rae felt a tinge of pain in her head. No doubt the last few remnants of the broken seal was still affecting her. She slowly raised her hand to her face to massage her forehead, inadvertently letting her guard down.

"Ady.." Gabriel asked concerned as he tried to approach her again.

"Stop calling me that!" she shouted, causing Gabriel to stop in his tracks again.

"My name is Raeliana! You know it is Gabriel." She pointed her finger at him threateningly as she looked at his guilt-ridden face.

"Gabriel isn't even your real name, is it?" Sadness now joined her anger in her rollercoaster of emotions. Sadness at being deceived by people that she thought had loved her. The people that she thought she could trust the most.

Gabriel didn't want to say any more, everything he said just made her face distort in a way that he was struggling to bear. He hated that he was now adding to her pain. He just wanted to make it all go away, but he knew she couldn't start to heal or move pass this unless he confessed everything.

"You're right. My real name isn't Gabriel. It's Quinn, Quinn Almayda."

"Almayda?" Rae repeated the name back to him. Something about his surname sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn't quite place it. She searched her newly restored memories to see if she could recall the name, but there was nothing. All her memories were still a bit fragmented and jumbled and it hurt to try and make sense of them all right away.

"That's right." Gabriel nodded "Do you remember the name?"

Rae shook her head. The look of distrust still in her face and her body language.

Gabriel looked disappointed. She was still looking at him like he was the enemy and he couldn't help but find it unsettling. " You can still call me Gabriel if that makes you feel more comfortable."

Rae didn't say anything. She still wasn't sure if she could trust him and with no memories to back up his statements, she thought best to say nothing at all for now.

"Like you, I'm from the Eastern Territory too. I was a child when the Sirran packs invaded. Lots of the Aldian packs became displaced and either tried to claim asylum in to Galas via some of the neighbouring pack lands or try and go in to hiding. In the panic I became separated from my family. I was trying to cross the border in to Galas in hope that I would be reunited with my family. That's when I met you and Mya. She helped me to gain asylum in to the Eclipse Fang pack territory. Once she got you and her settled, she came back to get me, and brought me to live with the both of you. Do you remember any of that?"

Rae looked at Gabriel curiously. Mya had originally told her that she found Gabriel on the streets of Galas, but from what he was telling her, she had met him before they even came to Galas. She even remembered when Mya brought Gabriel home, but she had no recollection of meeting him before then.

"My family has a long history of serving your family, as guards and in the Aldian royal army..." Gabriel continued. He frowned a little as he thought about his family and the countless other families that traditionally served under the King, King Zeke "...or rather, they did use to serve your family before Nolan..." Gabriel stopped speaking abruptly, he could see the hurt in Rae's face from just the mention of the former Sirran King's name.

"I'm not doing a very good job of this, of explaining things. I understand why you're so weary of me and I know you must have so many questions and I can't answer them all. You deserve to know the truth about everything and what led up to this. Mya is probably the best person to speak to about all of this, she can explain everything as soon as she's back. We never meant to hurt you by concealing this. I swear it. Everything I've told you is the truth."

Rae didn't look convinced. Even just knowing that Mya would be back soon had her slightly on edge. She didn't trust her anymore then she trusted Gabriel at the moment.

"Well it's too late! You've already hurt me. You've lied to me for all of these years. Why on Earth would I suddenly start trusting you now?! You might just be trying to keep me here until she comes back so you can erase my memories again!"

Gabriel lowered his head in front of her and stared down at the ground. "Then command me, command me to speak the truth." With his head bowed and on his knees in front of her, he was showing her his submission. Tara could also feel it from his wolf Blake too.

"What?" Rae answered in confusion. *'Is this a ploy?'* she asked herself. She couldn't help but wonder if he was trying to trick her somehow.

"Command me to tell the truth," he repeated again. He lifted his head slightly to peer up at her. She didn't seem to understand her position.

"Raeliana as an immediate member of the Lauriel royal family, you have alpha blood. As the sole survivor and heir to that bloodline, you are both an Alpha and a princess to Aldia, the former Eastern territory." Gabriel paused for a moment as he realised his mistake in what he had just said. He lowered his gaze back down to the ground.

"No...forgive me your majesty. You are both my Alpha and my Queen."