Mated To The Barbarian King Who Is My Ex-husband's Father.

​"What is going on here?" Arianna demanded as she reached the center of the commotion.

​The two guards wrestling with Astrid stopped instantly and bowed. One of them stepped forward, opening his mouth to explain, but Arianna cut him off, raising her hand flat in the air.

​"Do not come any closer. And pick up the dresses on the ground in front of you."

​The guard blinked in surprise, but under her sharp gaze, he quickly knelt to do as he was told. A wave of soft, stunned murmurs rippled through the crowd of watching women.

He gathered the dirtied dresses and set them carefully onto the mat inside the stall.

​"Now, you can talk...actually, I have changed my mind," Arianna said, turning her attention to the young mother, who was desperately trying to soothe her crying infant. "What happened? I would like to hear from you first."

​Tears were already carving clean lines down Astrid’s dusty cheeks. She stepped forward, shifting the baby securely to her hip as she spoke. "I came to the market this morning and hung my dresses for display, my lady. I was in the middle of attending to a few women who came to buy from me when the Princess’s guards arrived. They didn’t even give me a chance to speak. They just started tearing my shop apart and throwing my things into the mud."

​Arianna immediately understood who "the Princess" was in this context—Aunt Freya. It seemed the older woman had been put in charge of running the market’s daily affairs.

​"You do not have permission to sell here," the guard defended himself, squaring his shoulders.

​"Why haven’t you registered?" Arianna asked Astrid, keeping her tone neutral as if she didn’t already know the sordid history. It was always better to hear the truth straight from the source rather than relying entirely on gossip.

​"I am not from the King’s pack and the Princess required that I register to hold a stall," Astrid began, rocking her body in a gentle, rhythmic sway to quiet the whimpering baby against her chest.

​"And your application was denied?" Arianna asked, wanting to speed the questioning along. The poor child clearly needed its mother’s undivided attention and she had no intention of keeping them standing in the dirt any longer than necessary.

​"Yes, my lady. They refused to give me a proper reason, even though I met every single requirement on the list," Astrid said, her voice trembling with suppressed anger and exhaustion.

​Arianna nodded slowly, turning a freezing gaze onto the guards. "Why was her registration denied?"

​"I have no idea, Your Highness," the guard stammered, shifting uncomfortably under her scrutiny. "We are simply following orders."

​"Please help me, Your Highness," Astrid cried, dropping to her knees in the dirt directly in front of Arianna. "My husband is forbidden from working within the tribe and this stall is the only way I can support my family. If I cannot sell here, my children will go hungry... Have mercy, Your Highness."

​A cold shiver ran down Arianna’s spine, goosebumps prickling across her skin. She fought hard to blink back the sudden prickle of tears in her eyes.

It sickened her to think how Aunt Freya could be so incredibly ruthless to a fellow woman. Even if Freya had a bitter, personal history with Astrid and her husband, the children were entirely innocent. To starve them out of spite was monstrous.

​"Get up. You do not need to kneel to me," Arianna said softly, stepping forward and reaching down to help the shaking woman to her feet.

​As Astrid stood, Arianna gently took the whimpering baby from her arms. He was a beautiful baby boy with soft tufts of red hair and bright green eyes, sharing his mother’s striking features.

​Holding him close, a sudden wave of sharp, sweet nostalgia washed over Arianna. She was instantly transported back to the first time she had held her infant brother in her arms after he was born.

It had been one of her absolute favorite moments in life and holding this sweet baby now made her chest ache with a sudden, painful longing for her brother.

​"What is his name?" she asked softly, her gaze locked on the child.

​"Valkor, Your Highness," Astrid whispered, wiping her wet cheeks with the back of her hand.

​"How old is he?"

​"He is six months and a few days, Your Highness."

​Arianna gently rocked the boy, then looked up at his mother, her brows arching slightly. "You shouldn’t have wrestled with the guards while holding your baby. What if something had happened to him, or to both of you?" She kept her voice gentle, wanting to advise rather than scold a mother who had already suffered enough. "You must protect your child first. Do you understand?"

​"Yes, my lady," Astrid said, biting her lower lip in deep regret. "I am so sorry. I wasn’t thinking."

​"I know you weren’t," Arianna said warmly. "It is hard to think straight when two towering men are intimidating you."

​With a tender smile, she carefully handed Valkor back to his mother’s waiting arms. "Go on and feed him now. He is hungry."

​"Yes, my lady," Astrid murmured, bowing gratefully before retreating into the shade of her stall to comfort her baby.

​The two market guards stood stiffly, their expressions sour, but they kept their mouths shut.

​"And as for the two of you...wait, is this truly how you treat a woman?" The last traces of Arianna’s calm demeanor vanished as she whirled on them. Her nose flared, her voice dripping with sheer annoyance. "She is a nursing mother, yet you showed absolutely no regard for the infant. You were ready to drag her down to the earth with a child in her arms! Is that how you dispense your duties? Was that the exact command given to you by the person who sent you?"

​The guards fell completely silent, bowing their heads in genuine shame. They had followed their instructions blindly, never stopping to look at the cruelty of their own actions.

​Arianna glanced back at Astrid, who was now quietly tending to little Valkor, before fixing the men with a final, freezing look. "You will leave this place immediately and you will never disturb her again. Do you understand me?"

​The two guards exchanged a hesitant look, as if they wanted to protest, but the words died in their throats.

​"Go. Now," Arianna commanded. She stood her ground, waiting to see if they would actually dare to disobey their Queen.

​The guards bowed again, but just as they turned to retreat, the crowd parted. Striding down the market path was Aunt Freya, with Selena and a small trail of handmaidens following closely behind her.

​Arianna’s eyes narrowed slightly at the sight of Selena. Since when did the two of them become friends?

​"Someone must have run to tell her," Eira whispered urgently from behind.

​"I assume it was one of the onlookers," Arianna murmured back, bracing herself for whatever storm was coming.

​She wasn’t afraid of either of them. However, her goal wasn’t to start a public screaming match with Kane’s aunt; she wanted to convince the older woman to let Astrid sell her wares for the sake of the hungry children.

​"And who do you think you are to oppose me?" Aunt Freya demanded the moment she arrived. She didn’t care in the slightest that she was publicly challenging the Queen in front of the entire tribe.

​"I didn’t oppose you," Arianna chuckled softly, genuinely surprised those were the first words out of the woman’s mouth. She held Freya’s furious gaze without blinking. "I merely put an end to the inhumane treatment of a mother and her child."

​"What inhumane treatment?" Aunt Freya asked, her voice dripping with disdain. "The woman is not from our pack and, as such, she is not permitted to sell here. The rules are crystal clear, so why must you make things difficult? Or is it your intention to embarrass me, Princess?"

​"Aunt Freya, I do not..."

​"Look here, Princess," Freya interrupted sharply, stepping into Arianna’s space. "I run this market because the King gave me his explicit permission to do so. You have absolutely no right to mess with its order just because you came from the West and managed to get married to him."

​"Exactly," Selena chimed in, a smug smirk plastering her face. "Stop interfering with Aunt Freya’s duties, Arianna. Unless, of course, you simply envy her position."

​Selena’s petty jab only fueled the fire building in Arianna’s chest. All around them, the women of the market looked back and forth in utter confusion, entirely unsure of who to support. They remained deathly quiet, watching the royal clash unfold.

​Arianna wasn’t entirely surprised by Freya’s venom. When the older woman had come to apologize to her in private earlier, Arianna had known all too well it was nothing more than an act to impress Kane.

​"First of all, Freya..." Arianna began, intentionally dropping the title of respect from the older woman’s name. She drew herself up to her full height, her gaze turning to absolute ice. "I am no longer just a princess. From this moment on, you will address me by the highest hierarchy, which is your Queen. Do you understand me?"

​Both Selena and Aunt Freya gasped, visibly shocked by the sheer authority radiating from the woman they had consistently tried to belittle.

​"I wasn’t planning to take this matter any further," Arianna continued, her voice cutting through the tense air, "but the both of you have officially stepped on my toes. I have no choice now but to take this matter directly to the King."

​Arianna turned her attention back to the marketplace guards, who were still standing tensely near Astrid’s stall. "Who will you obey? Your Queen, or her?"

​The guards looked from Arianna to Aunt Freya, sweat visibly breaking out on their brows as they weighed the consequences.

Yet, they knew the law of the pack better than anyone: the King’s wife held the ultimate authority. Slowly, both men bowed deeply to Arianna, cementing their allegiance.

​Furious, Aunt Freya stepped forward until she was nearly face-to-face with the Queen, her expression contorted with rage. "I am going to tell the King exactly what happened here today. Let’s see if he will go back on his word. He is fully aware of who Astrid is... and I am absolutely certain he will side with me."

​Arianna held her ground, refusing to let her confidence waver. Deep down, she truly had no idea who Kane would side with in a family dispute like this.

But she chose to believe in the man she was uncovering beneath the crown—a responsible leader who, above all else, would choose justice.

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