Althena Book 2

26. Interview

I eat lunch with the boys and complain that I have no idea what to wear for my interview. They decide on a plain blue dress. It's quite boring and goes past my knees. I dress it up with a lot of gold accessories. I even find some gold shoes and a belt. They are not making me look boring.

We get to Drogon's office at 3. Haddy is with his secretary. They are going over her notes.

She sees us and jumps up and down. "I am ready. I got this."

"Great. Come on in."

After the boys rearrange part of his office because the background needs to be a certain way, we are ready to start. 2 armchairs are kind of angled towards each other with a table between them. The background is pretty though. We can see the city and skyscrapers out the window.

I sit in one of the chairs. "There's nothing in my cup."

"I brought the cups from Green Valley. I don't have anything to put in them." She sits in the other chair and hands Drogon a disk. "This is me starting the morning news for school. It has to be on the 3-minute clip you make me. It's 15 seconds."

"What does it say?"

"Welcome to the Green Valley High Morning News. I'm lead investigative reporter Haddy. Few other things. I need it to make my stories official. The school makes me."

"That's fine. We'll get that on your clip."

Cyrus roams behind us and fills our cups with water. Then we're ready to begin.

She sits up straight and fixes her jacket. "Hi, I'm Lead Investigative Reporter Haddy from the Green Valley High Morning News. Today I will be interviewing our Queen, Althena Sage." She smiles at me. "Let's start at the beginning. Where were you born?"

"Woodland Pack. It's in the West District of Crystal Falls."

"Did you grow up there?"

"I lived in Woodland for 13 years with my mother."

"Your father was not involved?"

"No. We did not know about each other. I had no family other than my mother."

She puts her notes down. "Was it difficult?"

"In ways. We didn't have money. We were as poor as people can get. We couldn't afford things like butter. Meat was rare for us. My mother would make my clothes. I went to public school but couldn't afford to eat their lunch. I would get jealous on taco and pizza days."

"Were the kids nice to you?"

"When I was young, I didn't have any problems. Once they realized I didn't have a dad, they would call me mutt and avoid me. I was happy to have my mother though. She loved me so much. It didn't matter if other people were not so nice. I guess losing her at a young age helped me to ignore the mean people and focus on the time I had left with her."

"When did she get sick, or what's that story?"

"My mom grew up in the Mystical Moon Pack, here in Darkburn. When she was 17, she met my father. She fell in love with him. She loved him more than anything. But when she turned 18, he broke the bond between them. Her heart was so broken that it took real damage. She fought to stay alive for me. She wanted to have me and watch me grow up. So, she fled Darkburn. She went to her sister in Crystal Falls for help. She was able to stay there long enough to find a place for us in Woodland." I stop so I don't cry.

"She fought to stay alive for 13 years?"

"Yes. She wanted to stay longer. She wanted to watch me grow up. But her heart couldn't keep going. She slipped into a coma and died the summer before I turned 14." I wipe my eyes off.

"Why didn't she ask your father for help with you?"

"She never told anyone who he was. Even me. She kept me safe that way. Out of royal life. In ways, I think she may have been afraid to tell him. What could a dying poor woman do to keep her baby away from a king? I mean, he didn't want us. Would he have gotten rid of us for real? Would he have paid her to keep quiet? Would he have taken me and left her to die? We'll never know. So, she kept me safe by never saying a word about him, and he got to have his real family with no problems from us."

She wipes her eyes and takes a deep breath. "You said earlier you had no family except your mother, but your aunt was in Crystal Falls as well?"

"Yes. I did not know I had an aunt at that time. My mother never spoke of her. My aunt also did not know about me. My mother did not stay with her long when she got to Crystal Falls." I shrug my shoulders. "I really don't think they got a long well. As far as I know, they never spoke to each other while we were in Woodland."

"How did you find out about your aunt?"

"My mother was on her deathbed. She was going in and out of making sense. Mike was trying to get me to go to the pack house and eat. I couldn't leave her. He sat down and tried talking to her while I pretended to sleep. She brought up her sister. She was gone within a few days. But he found her sister."

"Mike Sander?"

"Yes."

"Did she come to take you after your mother was gone?"

"Yes. I remember looking out the window as we left. I said 'goodbye life.' It really was the end of my life too."

"How was living with your aunt?"

I go through living with her until I was 15. Then I talk about the shop and meeting Conner and Chris. How I loved being around people again. How Conner got Mike's attention and they fixed everything. I tell her about Demontail pack and what they did to me. How my uncle put me in the hospital. I don't leave anything out. I even tell her how I saved money and socks were the first thing I bought. Where the pack marks come from. How I never went back to school and ended up with tutors.

I talk about my trips to central and seeing the skyscrapers. My first heels at Safiri. How I would text Mike every day and when I was 16 I ended up going to Woodland because his phone broke. How we made my shop into a real shop. We laugh at spots and get teary at spots, but we get through.

Then we get to Darmon. We laugh so hard when I hit him on the head with the ring box.

"A present wasn't going to make me forget he had a fiance."

"Understandable."

"Chris saved the box. Then we went home. He made me unwrap it. It was a ring. It matched the necklace and rest of the jewelry he gave me. It was the last piece of the set."

She laughs. "Do you still have it?"

"No. I left it in Crystal Falls and told Chris he could have it."

"At least he got the whole set."

I laugh and rub my eyes. "After that, Conner and Mike were there in the morning. They wanted to make sure I was ok. But I really was. Darmon and I weren't close. I was trying to figure out how to get out of it anyway. I was relieved and happy. Moving on and happy, I learned something from it. Then the queen walked in the door. She said, I needed to make sure you were done, so I made a backup plan. You're leaving immediately by order of the queen. Go to the airport. Your grandma is waiting for you. I tried to argue but she wouldn't budge. She said, don't make your grandma wait."

"What did you do?"

"I had no options. I went to the airport by order of the queen. I watched out the window as we lifted off. I said goodbye life. Then it was over. I didn't even know where I was going. And I had no idea I had a grandma."

"Can we get some food?"

Drogon shuts off the cameras. "Of course. I think we all need a break."

We talk and eat as the sun goes down. When I sit back down, the city is dark behind us. The skyscrapers' windows are lit up. It's a beautiful sight.

We talk about everything from landing in Darkburn right up to how I would panic for a long time when I would hear glass break.

Then Mike stops us. "That's enough girls. We can't have you talking about the war. Too much security stuff is involved."

She smiles. "We'll skip to now."

We go over how I'm back at school finally. How I have a real home and family here. I've made friends. How I'm a cheerleader.

"I'm so happy. I feel like I fit in. People are kind and talk to me. I get invited to do things. I feel like I have an actual family and friends."

"To the people who are afraid to approach you or speak to you because you are high profile, what would you say?"

"I know this has been fast for everyone. It was faster for me. I'm still an orphan mutt. I don't know what it means to be high profile. So when people look at me and whisper to their friends, in my head, they're talking bad about me. They're making fun of my shoes. Or telling their friends I'm an orphan whose dad didn't want her. Everything happened so fast, I don't know how to think differently or be different. Don't be afraid to approach me. I enjoy talking and meeting people. Be kind. Smile. I think people should do that to everyone they meet though. You never know what someone is going through. Sometimes a smile from a stranger can make people feel not so alone."

"That's good advice. We're going to end with a slide show of pictures. Pictures from social media or that have been submitted. Thank you for joining me here today for the interview, Queen Althena."

"My pleasure."

"Lead Investigative Reporter Haddy from the Green Valley High Morning News, signing off. Thank you for watching."