Chapter 6
May realized just how much she fucked up when Taylor came back from her two weeks of passion with her new wife. She had seen Dove once or twice in the kitchen, but never around the royal grounds.
Usually, Taylor preferred Dove to help her with her daily meals.
She wasn’t Taylor’s handmaiden, but she was definitely close with her.
Taylor did not like referring to the staff as lesser just because they served the castle, which was something May valued.
The morning when Taylor arrived at her office after two weeks away, she knew she had to be careful.
“You have got a glow to you.” May set the paper down. Taylor rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide the smile that accompanied it.
“Why don’t you update me on what's been happening?” The Queen spoke with authority.
In front of May was an informal request for one of her soldiers’ reallocations with his mate being pregnant.
The men had been married for many years, but May barely knew him.
She would approve it regardless, as it reminded her of Dove and the throes of their passion just weeks ago.
Whaow Frar was at peace with all the neighboring countries and had a steady ruling, which was why the wedding had taken place. There had been concerns about the new tax for the people, but May wasn’t worried about it.
May’s official title was the Captain for the Queen’s Army.
She oversaw all the troops, which meant who was recruited along with lots of paperwork.
Even with her unofficial political title, she knew everything that happened, and Taylor trusted her as her best friend.
May gave her a quick and fairly boring rundown.
The country had few city capitals and officials who were always in touch with the crown.
“I’d like to check in with the kitchen staff and thank them for their work.
I also need to check in with Dove and see how she is after her heat.
” May nodded and kept her hand on her sword’s hilt.
Sometimes when her nerves hit, she would hold onto it to ground herself.
The battlefield, the training, the feel of Dove.
“Have you seen her?” Taylor’s concern didn’t crack her voice, but it was evident in the way she spoke. Along with May, Taylor always had Dove’s safety at the forefront of her mind.
“You know Dove does not like to be around me when you are not there.” Taylor nodded, looking down at the parchments May presented her with.
“Of course, but you do so regardless. Anyways, let me catch up with these documents and then I’ll go visit. I also would like to see the new recruits.”
The recruiting period for the army didn’t have a specific timeline, but it typically happened once or twice a year.
The newest recruits were only a few weeks into training.
It took almost half the year to make sure they were properly trained, if not longer.
May took on two personal recruits, who she spent an extended period of time with to make sure they were the best. They would be generals, leaders, and maybe even a captain one day if May had her way.
“Understood. I have a training period marked out for the next two hours.”
“Perfect, I’ll swing by and grab you before our afternoon meal. Then we can eat with Dove.” Taylor grabbed some of the documents and left the office.
May would have to go to the outside grounds where the recruits would be today. They had an indoor corridor for training, but with the pleasant weather, the recruits went outside for today. She had just chosen her personal recruits who were with the general guard today.
May got up, walking through the castle and acknowledging each of the guards under her command as she walked towards the gate which led to the training area. It was far from the garden and royal livestock but closer to the stables.
Her two most promising students were a Beta who was nineteen, and an Alpha approaching twenty-three, the oldest of the recruits.
They were both excellent at following orders and fighting, but they sparked each other when they were together.
Instead of realizing they were working on a team, they fought for May’s approval.
The Beta, Kaden, was great at hand-to-hand combat but struggled using weapons, while Zoe the Alpha only used weapons. Today she wanted them to work on their weaknesses.
She was the captain, the first in her family.
Her family grew up on the outer edges of the kingdom.
They were shepherds, farmers, but when the war started, she was drafted at fifteen.
She moved to the castle as a drafted soldier, and Taylor instantly took a liking to her.
She worked her way up the ranks through the war, which led to her leadership position.
Both her parents had grown older during the war, so she remained at the castle.
Her official position was sometimes too much. She did not like everyone waiting on her orders. She was growing tired of giving commands, yet she was only thirty. She had only been in this position for five years.
As May approached the stables, she saw about twenty recruits taking part in hand-to-hand combat.
They all had fighting leathers on and sparring sticks.
May thought it was one of the most ridiculous exercises, but if they were to be handed weapons one day, they had to be able to grasp the basics, with something less deadly.
About five of the royal guards were overseeing the training along with her second-in-command, Caleb.
He was drafted the same time as May, but he was about two years older.
When she became Captain, she offered to relinquish him, but he refused to leave.
“How are they looking today?” She approached Caleb who gave a slight bow. Kaden and Zoe were on opposite ends of the field, and she bounced her eyes between them.
“They’re all doing very well—except one of the younger Omegas.” He pointed to the teenage boy who was frail. She could understand immediately, his technique was off.
“I would like you to give him some attention today, Caleb. I will be taking Kaden and Zoe for one-on-one training.” Caleb nodded, walking over to the younger Omega and dismissing Kaden and Zoe. They approached her with reverence as May led them back to the office.
She brought her two recruits to her personal office, which contained a multitude of weapons and a sparing area, and took a seat at her desk.
“Today we are focusing on your weaknesses.” May watched as fear flashed in their eyes. She thought of her own insecurities and fears. How she couldn’t put Dove first. How she wasn’t enough. She wasn’t royal adjacent like Dove’s family. She wasn’t educated. All she was good at was fighting.
“Kaden, you will be solely working with weapons. No hand fights at all. Zoe, you will have a single dagger on you for safety, but I am not to see you use it unless it is an emergency. Same for you, Kaden. We will be going around with the Queen later, so be prepared. Until then, I want you to both continue what you were doing outside.” They took their dismissal, but May sensed their hesitation.
They exited through the wood door to a private sparring room.
Typically, she would watch and train them more personally, but today she had much to do.
She pushed some papers aside, looking at the distribution of soldiers around the area.
They were there for safety and at trade posts.
The thing she hated most about her job was all the paperwork.
Because of her lack of formal education, sometimes she felt she couldn’t understand logistics.
It was something her and Taylor had discussed earlier this year.
Before she knew it though, Taylor came knocking on her door. The two guards she always had assigned to her gave a slight bow.
“I will take it from here gentlemen but before you go, can you grab Kaden and Zoe and tell them to come here?” The older Beta nodded before running off.
While Taylor used the title Queen, she rarely wore dresses. Her royal suit was navy blue today, which offset her brown hair curled into a bun. She took a seat in the comfiest chair set in the corner, letting her legs fall apart and a big breath left her lips.
“Everything okay, Your Highness?” May addressed her formal title in case her trainees came in. They never used formality in private but today she would.
“Everything’s fine, May. Just a long first day back.” Taylor’s behavior betrayed how she felt, though. Her breathing was labored. She was slightly pale, and her pheromones were brewing a storm of emotions. May was about to double down with her questions when Taylor spoke.
“As you know, we are waiting to try for pups, so I had to take some herbs, and it took a mini toll. Eveleen isn’t in heat, but my rut started during our wedding period and we didn’t want to take away from that bliss.”
May and Taylor had previously talked at length about what it would be like to have pups and the perfect situation.
This was before Taylor met Eveleen, but May knew how much she desired Dove.
If Dove was pregnant with her pup…She would do anything for Dovely, but Dovely and her pup…
May would cease to exist for them if it meant happiness.
“Herbs during a rut are hard.” Almost a year ago May had experienced a rut caused by Dove’s Omega.
She took no one and nothing but herbs and stayed in the dark for almost a week until her rut was over.
The whole rut was one of the most painful things she had experienced, and she had been stabbed during battle.
“Well do not stop there, May. Is there anything you did to help it?” Taylor widened her legs, as to let her length breathe through the pants. She would not comment on her friend’s length, but she saw it poking through the pants and Taylor knew it. They were both Alpha’s after all.