lay me down on a bed of roses

How could she have been late to this meeting? She had been on the battlefield, she had watched with horror in her gaze as her father and mother had battled. They had once seemed so perfectly happy, like nothing could ever break them apart. And then everything had fallen apart. It had taken Kamala a while to gather her thoughts, to get them past the jumbled, broken mess that they had been after seeing that battle. The gray female had taken her time in getting back to Seracia, but once she arrived, it seemed that the meeting was already in full swing.

That would not reflect well upon her. But it was better that she arrived late and able to force herself into functioning as was proper for a Grand Duchess than on time and broken. By the time that she approached the meeting, her head was held high and she was confident in her abilities to hold it together. She had already lost her mother when the battle began. Kamala remembered the way that Adette had acted. That female had not been her mother. Whatever she had been, she had not been the woman who raised her.

She arrived just in time to hear Gerhardt announce that he was stepping down, and naming Maverick king. Kamala looked blankly at her father, emerald eyes focusing on him as he spoke. Her father, stepping down? She had known that it would have to happen soon enough, but it was strange. Her father had been the King of Seracia for as long as she could remember. It would take some time to adjust to her brother being the King. But she knew that her father had chosen correctly. Her brother would be an excellent King.

Gray ears twitched in Maverick's direction as her brother began to speak, and Kamala listened attentively to her new King. So, they were expecting a litter? She would have to congratulate him later. They would surely be adorable, and a worthy addition to Seracia, along with Bronze's litter. She glanced towards Bronze at the thought, and noted a pretty black female standing at his side. She appeared to be pregnant as well. Was this the Silent of which Maverick spoke? Kamala would indeed wish to talk to the female later, then.

Wait, what? Kamala stirred when Maverick spoke of her. Princess? It would only be a temporary rank, Maverick clarified, but the fact that her brother had enough faith in her to name her Princess even temporarily, did mean a lot to the female. Her tail wagged just slightly at Maverick spoke, and the female tilted her head slightly as his words spilled over her ears. It was hard to focus for too long; her thoughts kept returning to her dead mother.

Gerhardt was leaving, and Gideon was gone now, gone to Valhalla to be at the side of Chrysanthe, the female that Maverick had once been promised to. Valkis had long since vanished, and was presumably dead by now. Their family had shrunk significantly since they had arrived in these lands. But they would survive, of course. They would survive and come out all that much stronger for it. But Kamala wasn't sure what she was going to do now. After all, since she had been a pup, she had been promised to Gideon. And now he was gone and her mother was gone and what was she going to do now?