Chapter 12

                                    

                                          
DPOV
I was in dubio. I needed Rose with me tonight because there was no way she could spend the full moon in the concubine garden. But on the other hand, I was ready to explode. On more than one front.
I never indulged in those tendencies during the full moon, very conscious of my strength and the lack of control on those nights. I usually ran in the forest. And we would still be able to do that. I knew Rose loved it too. But being that close to Rose, without my inhibitions was not a good idea. And even if I could control myself. She has had a lot less time with her wolf out during the full moon and I wonder if she could control herself. 
Although she spent an entire year controlling her wolf to the point of not letting her out, so maybe she isn't the problem here.
I decided to put off how I was going to handle the upcoming full moon and visit the other person in my life that meant something to me and often occupied my mind. 
I knocked on her door and she opened it immediately. She first looked at my chest seeing as it was at eye height and then had to look up to see me. She hugged me the moment she saw it was me. 
She motioned me inside of her small but homey room. Her room was in a barack near the fields. Not quite in the palace but not far off either. If I had the time I could visit her everyday. 
"Dimka. Moy dorogoy" She greeted me in her native dialect she had passed down to me, but I had no real need in speaking here.
 I laughed. I was always my mothers sweetheart no matter how old or tall I grew. 
"Dobroye utro, mama" I returned. 
"Come in, come in. It has been too long."
Yes it has. But with the raid against the Sorokin pack and the King on the verge of war with Abe it really hadn't been the time. Now things seemed to have calmed down. 
My mother had a kettle on the stove for tea, but she knew I preferred coffee, so she prepared the french press. My mother hated coffee, but she always had some in her room so she could give me a cup. The gesture was so small, but it helped thaw some of the ice around my heart that had grown there at the Palace. It was one of the reasons I came here. She kept me human.
Once the drinks were made she handed me my cup and sat down on a seat opposite me.
"How have you been? Any news?" 
The way she was asking, sent me on high alert. There was an accusation in her voice. And those shrewd eyes only a mother could have were looking at me over the rim off her cup.
I knew the fields weren't exempt from the gossip of the palace, and obviously my mother had heard a thing or two about me.
"No, not really. Since the arrival of the Southern pack, things have been quiet." If you don't count Abe planning a coup and me falling hopelessly for another alpha slave that is.
"Oh really, quiet? I find that hard to believe at the palace. There is always some sort of buzzing around."  She wasn't wrong. She had been in the center of that buzzing for years, still knew the ins and outs of how court worked. It never seemed to change. 
I shrugged.
"I hear there was this new concubine that was in great demand because of her beauty. But a high ranking General already claimed exclusivity before anyone could even look at her....Did you... look at her?"
She took a sip of her tea and I did the same with my coffee. She knew very well who had claimed exclusivity. I knew my mother didn't ever want to go back to the palace, but she did get a little lonely out here. So she kept up with all the gossip as best she could. She still had friends in the palace she would occasionally talk to.