Chapter 71 - Concessions and Confessions

*'Queen?'* she said to herself. She hadn’t even thought about it. With her parents and siblings gone, she would be next in line to be Queen. But Queen of what? Nolan, Colton's father, had taken over Aldia and made it part of Sirran. All of the packs that made up the Eastern territory were either dead, displaced or forced to follow Colton.

Gabriel was still knelt down in front of her, staring down in to the ground. It made her feel uncomfortable. She shuffled forward a bit more in the bed.

“Gabriel?” she said quietly.

“Yes my Queen?” Gabriel said formally, as he waited for her to instruct him.

“Stop” she said softly. Her hands were trembling again. Him calling her a Queen was just reminding her of the tragedy that had earned her that title.

Gabriel lifted his head up in confusion. “Stop?” he repeated back to her. He wasn't understanding.

“The whole Queen thing. I'm nobody's Queen" Rae stared down in to her lap. The feeling of sadness resurfacing instantaneously. "Aldia doesn't exist anymore" she continued. She missed her family, her people, her home.

Gabriel tightened his lips seeing her reaction. "You're still *my* Queen, and many others, with or without or homeland"

"Don’t call me that," she said a bit more assertively. She took a deep breath and swallowed hard hoping to push down all these conflicting emotions, at least for now. "Just call me Rae.”

Gabriel opened and closed his mouth in silent protest. “But… I...I can’t”

Rae looked at him from the corner of her eyes, whilst hunched up at the back of the bed. “Why not? You’ve been calling me Ady for years, why can’t you call me Rae now?” she asked with a bit of irritation in her voice.

“Yes but… that was before.” He peered up at her. “You’re no longer my little sister. I can quite clearly see my Queen before me. I can’t be so familiar with you now.”

Rae huffed then shuffled herself towards the end of the bed, allowing her feet to drop out on to the floor. Her long white nightgown billowed down as she stepped out. She flexed her toes on the wooden floor to ease up the stiffness in her legs.

Gabriel's eyes followed her as she padded around the end of the bed over towards him. As she got closer to him ,he stayed knelt by the side of the bed and lowered his gaze again.

Rae stopped abruptly in front of him “Fine, then as your *Queen* I command you to call me Rae. No Queen, No your majesty. Just. Rae.”

Gabriel opened his mouth again to protest but halted when he saw the threatening look she was making. It was also the same face she made when he threatened to steal her ice-cream or when she was losing to him at chess. She was not one to be messed with and she wasn't going to take no for answer. Like this, she was the Ady that he knew and had grown up with. She was always trying to put him in his place, and she usually did. Whilst she looked and felt different, there was no doubt that her personality was still the same. He smiled and nodded slowly at her. "Ooookay"

“Good." Rae said with finality "And while you’re at it stand up. This whole kneeling thing is making me feel uncomfortable.”

"Uhh...okay" Gabriel rose up from his feet. He had to admit that the relief at being able to stand did feel good. As he stood upright, he towered over her. He wasn't quite sure what to do and say next “Does… does this mean that we’re good?”

“No!" she said sternly. "I’m still angry Gabe, no wait it’s Quinn right?”

“I’m happy for you to call me either your majes…”

Rae narrowed her eyes after she picked up that he was going to call her ‘your majesty’.

“I mean…Rae..liana.” Just calling her Rae still felt way too informal. Up close, in her presence, the difference between Ady and Raeliana was back to being vast again.

“Really?” she said sarcastically with one eyebrow raised. She couldn't understand how the man who was constantly teasing her and picking fun at her was now suddenly so compliant, so formal. She would have to sort this out sooner rather than later or she wouldn't be able to bear it.

“I’m trying here.” He said, with a defeated smile. “Give me some time. Blake is still a bit disoriented. You feel so different. I can feel the energy coming off from your wolf. It's pretty intense."

"You can feel Tara?" Rae said excitedly, fully breaking the earlier tension between the two of them

"You know her name now?" Gabriel asked intrigued. Gabriel knew all of her battles with her wolf. She had struggled with it all her life, so hearing that she knew her wolf's name was a big relief to him. He could see pride in her face as she mentioned her name.

"That's great!"

"Yeah, Kai helped me." Her face lit up at just the mention of his name "My wolf connected with him somehow and then Tara told me her name after, it was amazing and now I can hear and feel her all the time." She clenched her closed fist up towards her chest as she thought about both Tara and Kai. "Kai's amazing Gabe! I can remember fragments of him from when we were kids. I mean what are the chances that we'd go from chosen mates to actually being fated mates and..." Rae paused as she caught sight of Gabriel's face.

Gabriel felt like he was caught between a rock and a hard place. Seeing her speak so affectionately of him had obviously brightened her spirits, but he wasn't quite ready to start cheering him on either.

Rae mistook Gabe's reaction as one of anger at her lying to him when she went missing. They hadn't spoken since then. "I'm... I'm sorry I lied about what happened, when I went missing. I was with him."

"I know..." he said regrettably. He had already forgiven her, but was annoyed with kai for putting her in that position in the first place.

"You do?" Rae suddenly remembered that Kai had said that he had spoken with him already. "Oh, right, he did mention that you two had spoken. You don't...like him?" Rae asked dejectedly.

"He's put you in danger Rae"

"No! That wasn't his fault" It was evident to her that Gabriel knew more about some of the events that had happened already, since she met Kai again, but she didn't want to say anything that might put him in a poor light. She knew more than anyone else that Kai had already made big sacrifices to try and keep her safe.

Gabe tutted and turned away. He couldn't even pretend to hide his dislike of Kai.

"You know... I think Kai is actually the one that feels slightly threatened of you"

"Threatened of me?" Gabriel said unconvinced. Kai had already threatened him more than once, so that seemed unlikely to him. If anything, it was vice versa, but he wasn't about to admit that to anyone.

"He does..." Rae twiddled her fingers then started pacing around in the room nervously. "He...he thinks that you might have feelings for me. I already told him that can't be true. Right?" She stopped pacing with her back towards him as she asked the question.

Gabriel remained silent. If Kai had said this much to her, he didn't see the sense in skirting the topic.

The silence dragged on longer than expected, and Rae turned around to face him. "Gabe?" she asked again.

His face was completely devoid of emotion. If he felt some certain way, Rae couldn't tell from his face.

"I don't know" he said quietly.

Rae's eyes widened in shock. This was not the response she was expecting to hear from him at all. This was the same guy that was seeing a different bar maid every other week.

"You've been Ady, my annoying little sister for so long and somewhere along the way, things just started to change." Gabriel continued. "The feeling of wanting to be close to you. Not just me but my wolf too. Something just felt different."

"Gabe, wait," Rae interrupted. She was completely unprepared for this. She took a few steps back from him.

"No, wait. Let me finish" Gabe started again. "I won't lie, I thought I was in love. I thought I was falling in love you."

"Thought?" Rae repeated to herself. She noted he was using past tense.

"But seeing you now, I'm wondering if it was just my instinctive desire to look after you, manifesting in a way that I didn't understand. As I mentioned before my family has served your family for generations. I think when your seal started to weaken, your energy started to draw something out in me and my wolf. My innate desire to protect you. I'm almost certain that is what it was."

Rae physically relaxed after hearing his words. There was no doubt in her mind that she loved him, like a brother, but she knew that she'd never be able to return any romantic feelings back to him, if he had any. She didn't want to break his heart, so knowing that he didn't feel that way was a welcome relief.

"So I'm clear... you're not in love with me then?" Rae asked again for additional confirmation.

Gabriel could see that the tension in her had eased, and he smiled warmly at her. "I love you, like family and as my queen, but in answer to your question, no, I'm not in love with you. Both my wolf and I would never be so bold as to overstep that mark."

Rae returned his smile and smoothed her hand across her neck as she felt the ridges of Kai's claiming mark.

Gabe caught her little action and grimaced. "With that being said, I'm not going to sit here and say that I approve of *'him'* either.

"You mean Kai?" Rae asked innocently.

Gabriel sucked his teeth. "That entitled bastard think he has some legitimate hold over you."

"We are mates Gabe" she said quietly. This was the over-protective brother mode coming out now.

"Mates or not, he needs to learn his place in the pecking order! You're a queen Raeliana. You outrank him. He's nothing but an arrogant, useless pric..."

"Gabe!" Rae called, cutting him off. She felt disappointed in his assessment of Kai. "You barely know him"

"I don't need to know him in and out to make that call. It's as clear as day in my eyes."

Rae rolled her eyes. "Either way, we have claimed each other. We're bonded mates now. It's quite clear you're not keen on him but you're going to have to learn to get along with him."

"Is that a command?" he said earnestly, but with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Do I need to make it one?" Rae responded with a sly smile. "Or can you just try and get to know him, for my sake."

Gabriel huffed again. "If that's what you really want, I'll try. But I can't make any promises."

"Thank you" Rae replied, satisfied for now.

Gabriel smiled seeing the content expression on her face. It made him much happier than the broken woman he'd seen when he first walked in to the room. "You know, even though you look slightly different, inside you're still the same. I'm glad to see it."

“I look different?” She said to herself.

Rae padded across the room and opened one of the blinds. As the light beamed in, she scanned the room and located a hand-held mirror on a small dresser in the corner. She picked it up and looked at her reflection. Her hair had changed to a deep dark glossy black. She had spotted that earlier, but in addition to that her freckles had gone, and if anything, her eyes were a richer shade of green than they were before.

She prodded at her face as she took in this new reflection. She could still see Adalyn in herself, but something about her seemed more refined than before. She still didn't understand how this had all happened. How her appearance had changed, how her memories were locked away.

"Can you tell me more about this seal you mentioned Gabe?"

"I can answer that." A familiar voice spoke from the back of the room" Adalyn tipped her hand mirror up to catch Mya's reflection.