They had positioned themselves in their usual seats, Bedivere to Arthur’s left, Lancelot to his right, and as a younger member of the round table, Gawain was seated further down.
“How can the gods ask this of you, your majesty? What did you do to deserve this sort of divine punishment?” Sir Gaheris, one of Gawain’s older brothers asked, oblivious to the obvious insult he was lancing at his younger sibling.
This had gone on long enough and I opened my mouth to tell them as such, but I never got the chance.
Bedivere’s fist slammed into the table before he cut through the din of conversation in a voice louder than I had ever heard from the alpha. “That isenough! What king do you serve?”
There was a quiet chorus of Arthur’s name from the knights who seemed just as shocked as I was that Bedivere had spoken at all.
Bedivere’s growl filled the chamber. “I shall repeat myself. What king have you all sworn to serve?”
“King Arthur! King of kings!” they roared, stamping their feet in the familiar call to order.
“You will bend the knee to no other king than him—regardlessof his marital status,” Bedivere finished with a snap before leaning back in his seat and glancing over at Arthur, gesturing for him to speak as if his outburst had been done with Arthur in mind. “Your majesty.”
Arthur stood, pressing his fingers into the ornately carved table that Bedivere’s blacksmith father and his foster-father had painstakingly carved upon Arthur’s coronation all those years ago.
“I was like you at first—unsure of the gods’ plans for me with such an… unconventional path for my marriage to my queen. But you all know better than I my fear of losing an omega the same way my foster-father lost his.”
Many of the knights shifted guiltily in their seats for they felt the same way about their own wives. It was the primary reason why so many of them had chosen to remain unmarried whilst the Saxons invaded our lands: they could not protect an omega and our kingdom at the same time.
“But I have come to appreciate their candor and the sense of security I feel as a member of a pack. The day I left Camelot to face the Saxon scourge, I knew that my wife was in good hands. In safe hands. Because there is no better protection for her than men who love her and would die for her. If not for them we would have all been lost to Morgana’s spell.”
Arthur looked at each man at the table. These were men who had fought by his side for years and I knew he trusted them with his life.
“I am your one king. That has not changed, however you will respect the men of my pack just as you respect my queen. She may have been my fated omega as decreed by the gods, but she also has my heart,” Arthur said, putting his hand over his chest.“Now, may we return to our original discussion? Merlin, what of Morgana and Mordred?”
I stepped forward as Arthur settled back down into his seat. “Her magic has been eradicated from the castle completely. I purified it all myself.”
I did not mention that the day in the baths with Gwen had done most of the magical work for me—I was fairly sure the sexual component of our shared magic was not something that the knights of the round table would appreciate hearing of.
“But we have been… unfruitful in our search for them. As you know, King Lot’s body was found on the edge of his territory by King Leodegrance and his men,” I continued, watching as people shifted to look over at the two siblings who shared King Lot as a father sitting at the table.
Gaheris, who had spoken up earlier, cleared his throat. “Agravaine has returned to Lothian in hopes of reclaiming our territory as its new king, but we fear Morgana’s mental magics have dug deep into our people.”
There was a muttering around the table about how magic seemed to be the source of all of the bad things happening in Logres and more than one set of eyes were pinned suspiciously on me.
“Let him know Camelot stands behind him,” Arthur said, drawing their gazes again. “We need to send scouting parties ahead to keep track of Saxon movements, I fear that they will not take kindly to the imprisonment and death of their men. If I had to wager, I also feel that Morgana will make her way to them in an effort to barter for her son’s power.”
“Then are we just meant to wait until the Saxons come to raze our homes?” Sir Lionel asked, pressing Arthur for more. “Should we not bring the fight to them?”
“We are not waiting,” Arthur told the man firmly. “We are preparing. There are none here who do not know this valleyinside and out. If we are to fight a battle for the soul of Logres, then we must do it here in the heartland.”
Arthur began to delegate tasks to his men. The people of Camelot would be busy in the upcoming weeks fortifying the castle and the surrounding village.
We were going to protect what was ours.
It was time to prepare for war.
Chapter Forty-Three
“Busy again?” I asked Arthur as I slipped into his study long after darkness had fallen at the castle.
As the knights prepared for what I could only think of as the final battle with the Saxons, I had seen less and less of my mates as I had taken on the domestic tasks they were too preoccupied to handle.
That meant spending my days out in the fields with the people, and though they would not let me lift a finger to help them, I was able to learn about how they kept the earth rich and I was also able to use my magic to help them keep their crops watered.
They had been suspicious of my magic use at first, still wary due to the after effects of Morgana’s mind control, but once they saw how much easier it made things they weren’t shy about asking anymore.
