Claimed By A Dragon Prince

Finishing their breakfast Lily wanted to go see the woman before she could leave. Going to the back of the house at the end of the hall there was a few rooms mostly empty covered in dust. At the end of the hall, there was a door just as the servant said. Knocking on the door they wait for someone to answer.

The woman from before opened the door shocked to see them on the other side of the door. "What are you doing here?" Lily figured she would be this way after last night’s events. "I have a proposition for you. You’ll get revenge on the wolf queen and get your standing back. Interested?" To say the woman was shocked was an understatement as she had yet to say anything with her mouth hanging open.

"Excuse me?! How could you...ooooh!" She slammed the door in their faces leaving them standing there. Dimitri went to walk away but Lily grabbed his hand stoppinghim from leaving. The door opened back up a grumpy looking woman on the other side looking between the two cautiously.

"And how are you going to do that? Get my standing back, that is." Lily smiled as the woman let them in closing the door behind them. "I need to know why the Wolf Queen cast you out. She’s not the type to have too many loose ends." Lily explained as the woman led them to a sitting area. Tea was present, but she disapeared for a moment to come back with more cups. "It’s because of who I really am to her. She had my name changed, and married me off to a lord out here."

Lily thought back trying to remember if the Wolf Queen had a sister, but she couldn’t think of anything. Then she remembered Vestis hadn’t been around the whole time leading her to believe that the queen knew more about him then she let on. He could have easily added a person to forget when he came into power.

"So what is your name then?" Lily was curious about what she would say since the queens family had so many different names, but the main family was the same as the royal families. "My name is Mariana Luma Lupas. I was the oldest daughter to the second most powerful family in the Wolf Clan. My younger sister some how had me cast aside as Heir under false accusations of seducing a high ranking noble."

Dimitri was shocked to here this since he couldn’t recall there ever being talk of another woman for the Lupas family. "If that’s true why haven’t we heard about you before? Why is there no records?" Mariana looked defeated trying to find the words to explain. Lily chimes in having more of a clue then either of them.

"My Prince, Your forgetting my uncle. If I had to guess he needed a powerful family to step in to the most high ranking position he could without much fight. Mating into the Lupas Family would have achieved that. And he would have used his power to make all records of Mariana disappear so her sister could simply step in." The woman looked shocked that someone would go to such trouble while Dimitri scratched his chin finding it all hard to believe.

"How can you be so sure? And do you really believe your uncle was intellegent enough to pull something like this off?" Lily could understand his hesistation and uncertainty about her theory.

"Considering what he did to my father and mother its not that much of a stretch. Think about it, he needed a way to have power while making sure to keep tabs on my father. He knew my father would follow him to come and get me, and he had to make sure my father couldn’t take me. What’s the easiest way to achieve that?"

"But if that’s true why didn’t he just ask me to mate him? Why got to my sister?" Mariana made a good point, but Lily could tell even when she spoke at dinner she wasn’t a vindictive woman. Mariana had been fed to the wolves and survived against all odds proving that she wasn’t the bad person in all this.

"Because your not evil. He needed someone willing to cross lines you never would. I can tell that you are a good woman and that youwould have been an excellent queen. You could have made me look a fool in front of all those people, but you didn’t you only told the truth you knew. I would have done the same with what you know."

This brought Mariana up short since no one had ever said that to her before or truely saw her for who she really was. Tears formed in her eyes as she wiped her faces gaining her compsure. "Thank you. It has been a long time since someone acknowledged who I really am. Most just think I am her cousin, but no matter what I say they all think I’m crazy and jealous of my "cousin"."

Lily stood up walking over to her wrapping her arms around her as the woman cried onto her shoulder. "I see you. And I am going to help you get the life that was meant for you back. I know some of what we said didn’t make sense, but it will in time. Trust us to fix what was misplaced and discarded." Mariana nodded sniffling as Dimitri handed her a napkin to wipe her eyes with.

"I see now I was wrong about you. One day can you tell me the whole truth? Just so I can know?" Lily looked at her seeing that she would have been a great mother. "If you let me call you Auntie Mariana." The smile that spread across her face showed just how much that meant to her. Lily wasn’t going to let another person be left behind because they didn’t fit into an evil god’s plans.

Dimitri smiled at the two woman seeing just how Lily touches peoples hearts and souls wrapping herself deeply in them. Maybe that was her hidden power to make people feel whole again when they had felt so lost and alone. He had experienced something like that himself with her. Lily let her aunt go moving to sit next to him again.

"Of course you can. In a way you are my niece, a bit distant but I can tell who you are. You of the many perks of being a Lupas. I am just wondering how a goddess became mixed up in all this?" She made a good point and deserved to know the whole truth, but until everything was settled Lily didn’t want to risk her having to much information that could get her into trouble. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"When we settle all of this, hopefully here in the next year, I will tell you everything. But for right now I am asking you to take a leap of faith and know I have your best interest at heart." Mariana stared at her niece hoping her faith wasn’t misplaced. "Okay, I will wait, but I am holding you to your word, understand?"

"You got it. Now this is what I have in mind to help you back into the Palace." Lily went over the details she spoke with her father about before she left, giving her aunt a note and a key. "This is to my rooms on the royal floor and this is for the King when you see him. Dimitri signed it so you should be okay. My friend Trinee should be back from caring for Dimitri’s mother so you should be able to see her. Give her this note with my signature on it and she will give you the dragon moss from my lab. Pack as much a s you can carry and distribute it over the Wolf territory."

"And what will I tell people when they ask where i got the dragon moss from?" Mariana needed a good back story so people wouldn’t think the wrong things of her. "Tell them your my lost aunt who happen to find me on my travels. You said you wanted to help so this is the best way you can help. Changed their minds about you willingly so when the truth comes out they don’t see you as a martyr or a villaness. They see you as an avenger who through all odds did the right thing."

Mariana could see her logic in this wanting a good standing they she could build herself. "Alright I’ll do it. Please take care of yourselves. I will be leaving here as soon as I am packed." Lily nodded to her standing up with Dimitri. They still needed to check on the people here before they continued on with their journey. Aunt Mariana walked them to the door letting them out.

"Thank you for finding me. I am happy to call you family." Lily smiled at her aunt giving her one more hug glad to have more family as well. "Me too. Stay safe and don’t trust the kitchens. I have food storage in my lab. Trinee can let you in." She nodded waving them off as they made their way out of the main house to the village. Hopefully things were better with all the supplies and medical care provided.