I’ve been on a mission for my grandfather for several months. He sent me on what feels like a wild goose chase looking for a girl. He told me she was a teenager and a vampire, but he didn’t tell me anything more than that. Now, after several months of looking, I’ve come up with my last dead end. I’ve run out of leads and I have to return home to tell my grandfather that I failed him.
I sleep through the day, waiting for the sun to set before I begin making my way home. Unlike most vampires, I’m a royal and therefore, I can walk in the daylight, but it’s uncomfortable. My eyes are very light sensitive, and my pale skin burns easily, so I prefer to move at night.
As I get closer to home, to my grandfather’s clan and his lands, I get a bad feeling. The last couple of times that I called my grandfather, he didn’t answer. And for once, he didn't call me back. It’s now been a few weeks and I haven’t heard from him. It’s another reason I’ve decided to come home. I need to make sure that he’s okay.
Just as I get to the borders of my grandfather’s lands, I hear a loud crashing sound and then a human male steps out of the dark, holding a flashlight in my face.
“Halt, who goes there?”
I growl, low and deep. “Who the fuck are you and get that fucking light out of my face.”
“I’m a guard, who are you?” the human says, not moving the light out of my face. I’m tired and irritable and now I know for sure that something is wrong. My grandfather has never hired humans as guards or anything. We keep our distance from them.
Faster than the human can see, I move, smashing the light and grabbing him from behind, my arm around his throat and my razor sharp teeth by his ear.
“I will ask you once more. Who the fuck are you?”
“Harry! My name is Harry! I didn’t realize you were one of them. I’m sorry,” he chokes. I tilt my head and hear three more humans closing in on me from behind.
In a split second, I’ve ripped Harry’s head off, then I turn, ripping the throat out of one of the guys sneaking up on me. He doesn’t even have a chance to scream before I’ve ripped his throat out with my teeth. It’s been too long since I’ve fed and his blood in my mouth makes my eyes constrict and my mouth water for more. I desperately want to drain these last two men dry, but I look at them as they stop, the lights in their hands casting shadows over the dead guards.
“Run. Now.” I snarl and watch as their eyes go wide and the veins in their necks pulse heavily with their fear. I can hear the sound of their blood pumping through their bodies and it’s a symphony to my ears.
“GO!” I scream and turn, racing to the castle.
As I step inside, my father’s minion, Giovanni, steps out of the shadows.
“Prince Drake, we were wondering when you would return,” he says.
“Where is my grandfather?” I ask, not interested in his banter.
“Your father would like to see you, right away,” he says.
I stop, turning to him. “Where. Is. My. Grandfather?”
He gives me a placating smile. “Your father will explain everything. Please, follow me.”
As he leads me through the halls, I can hear the sound of music.
“May I ask whose blood that is on you?” he asks me.
“Some humans who said they were guarding my grandfather’s lands.”
“I see,” is all he says to me.
I can smell the humans, and the blood before we get to the main ballroom. When Giovanni opens the massive double doors, the scent of cheap perfume, sex and blood flood my nose.
My lip curls as I walk in, seeing that the room has become something of an orgy feeding room, everyone is fucking and feeding off of each other.
“What is the meaning of this?” I bellow.
The room goes quiet and I look up to see a throne at the head of the room. On the throne is my father and straddling his lap is a naked woman.
He pulls his fangs from her breast as he looks at me, his mouth red with blood. It makes my mouth water, but I refuse to be a part of something this disgusting.
“Where is my grandfather?” I ask my father. I stop following Giovanni as he continues to my father’s throne.
I watch as my father strokes the face of the woman on his lap. “Don’t stop,” he coos at her and she begins bouncing on his lap again as he refocuses his attention on me.
“My father, your grandfather, is dead. I killed him and took over the throne.”
My teeth snap together and I look around the room. I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t realize that my father would kill his own father.
“It was time for things to change,” my father purrs, looking at the woman bouncing on him. His hand comes around her throat and she leans her head back, her hands on the arms of the chair as she begins moaning loudly, the sound echoing around the room.
He looks at me as he begins to squeeze her throat. She doesn’t stop her bouncing and if anything, she seems to be getting off on the asphyxiation.
“It was time for the clan to be allowed to have some fun,” he says, as if what he’s saying and doing should make perfect sense to me.
He growls, his focus going back to the woman as I hear her breathing become labored, but still, somehow, she seems about ready to orgasm. My father rips her head to the side and slams his fangs into her neck. She screams her pleasure as he releases her throat, his blood-red eyes on me as he feeds on her while both of them cum.
I don’t look away, knowing my father is doing this on purpose.
When he finally pulls his fangs from her neck, she looks drugged. He probably took too much blood right after depleting the oxygen in her body. He finally turns his attention from me to her.
“Go get some rest, my pretty. Tomorrow, make sure you eat some liver. You’re becoming iron deficient, and we can’t have that. You wouldn’t want me to send you away, would you?” he asks her, like he’s talking to a child.
“No, Master,” she says, sounding as drugged as she looks.
“Good girl. Now go,” he says and smacks her ass leaving a handprint on it. I noticed that there are multiple women and some men in this room with hand prints on different parts of their asses and thighs.
She crawls off of him and stumbles away, barely able to stand.
I glare at my father, the man who created me.
“Don’t look at me like that Drake. All of your righteous indignation looks like hypocrisy while you are covered in the blood of my human guards. Go get washed up and then we can talk,” he says.
“Where is he?”
“Who?”
“My grandfather?” I snarl.
My father has the audacity to look around. Then he gestures to the floor.
“That’s him. All those ashes on the floor are your dear old grandfather. You see, I didn’t take him from you. I’m not a cruel man.”
“You make me sick,” I snarl before stomping out of the ballroom and heading to my bedroom. When I get there, I’m thankful that it’s been left mostly alone. I can tell that Giovanni has been in here, looking through my things, but it doesn’t appear that he took anything.
I’m sure he wants to know where I was and what I was doing for my grandfather. But, while my grandfather might have been naïve about my father’s willingness to kill him, he wasn’t stupid. He didn’t trust my father with his secrets, and obviously for good reason.
Now, it’s up to me to figure out who this girl is that my grandfather sent me after and to find her before my father does.
Our trip to the council has been weird. First, we were made to wait for nearly an hour, then Alpha Wyatt, the only councilmember in attendance basically dismissed our concern that vampires and werewolves were working together. If anything, he looked excited about the thought that someone was going against the Guardians.I put in my notice to take over for my mother, knowing it will take a couple of months for the paperwork to process. This gives me time to get to Araphyra with Lily, make sure all is well before returning back here and taking my mother’s place on the council.I call Rich that night and fill him in on the weird interaction with Alpha Wyatt.“Do you need any help?” he asks me.“No. Lily and I are leaving tomorrow, but we have to pass through King Urien’s lands.”“King Urien has always been a friend to the Guardians, and he used to sit on the council. Now it’s his son until he grandson takes over,” he says.“Yes, Councilman Lance is his name. I believe the son’s name is D
I’m digging through what’s left of my grandfather’s papers. Giovanni and possibly my father seem to have gone through everything. I swipe the papers onto the floor just as Giovanni comes to the door.“Prince Drake, your father has requested your presence for dinner.”“I bet he did,” I respond without looking at him.With hands on hips, I look around the room. My grandfather was smart enough not to leave something like this out where my father or Giovanni would find it. So where would he have put it.“I’m happy to escort you to dinner,” Giovanni says.“You can tell my father that I won’t be joining him for dinner tonight or any night,” i say. When he once again doesn’t move, I turn to him. I make shooing gestures with my hands and have the pleasure of watching his eyes narrow.“Now run along, like the good little errand boy that you are, and tell him that I won’t be coming.”Giovanni snarls, but turns and races off to tell my father of my insolence, no doubt.I begin going around the r
The moment Drake walked into that hideous feeding room, I knew I’d found my mate. Of all the places, in all the world, I found him here. When our eyes locked, I realized that my mate is the worst possible option of a mate for me, a vampire. The Moon Goddess must have a sick sense of humor.However, as the night went on, I realized that Drake is more like his grandfather, not his father. And while I’m not thrilled that my mate is a vampire, Lily encouraged me not to make the same mistakes that she’s made with hers.“Give him a chance, Lea. Don’t judge him too quickly,” she had said as we got ready for bed. I had pulled his sweatshirt over my head and nearly moaned out loud at his scent. I never gave much thought to the scent of ice, but it is interesting to me that Lily is mated to a Prince that smells like snow and now I find that I’m mated to a Prince that smells like ice. Maybe it's some kind of royalty thing.I’m sure Lily has noticed all of my not-so-casual glances at Drake tonigh
The moment Leana’s warm lips touch my cold ones, and her wild yet floral scent floods my nose, my fangs come out, slicing through her lower lip. I’m up and across the room before I make the mistake of tasting her blood that is now resting in warm droplets on my lips. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that,” she says. But I’m facing away from her, afraid that if she sees my blood lust for her, that it will all be over, and I’ll never get to prove to her that I can be the kind of mate she deserves. “I just…I wasn’t prepared and…” I glance over my shoulder, seeing her pressing her finger over her lip. “Are you alright?” “Yes. I heal quickly.” I nod, turning away. Unable to resist any longer, I lick her blood off my lips and the ecstasy that flows through my body is overwhelming. It takes everything in me not to fly to her and sink my teeth into her neck, sucking more of the most delicious blood I’ve ever tasted in my life. I lift my head, trying to get control of my emotions and my
We begin running again. Kella runs beside me and we begin to make a game of who can more easily navigate the land in the forest. I’m impressed over and over again at her grace and strength as she leaps as easily over fallen trees as I do. Even when I playfully push her to try to get ahead of her, she’s right back, catching me quickly and nipping at my heels. Our afternoon run is the most fun I ever remember having in my life. It’s sundown when we stop for the night. I can see Lily wants to push on, but they both need to eat and get some sleep. I, myself, haven’t slept in over 48 hours and I desperately need some rest. We find a place, up on a hill, where we can keep watch overnight. Kella and Hera catch a couple of rabbits to eat and even from here, the scent of the blood makes my mouth water. I don’t even like the taste of rabbit blood, but I’ve waited too long to feed. If I wasn’t so exhausted, I’d go find a large animal that I could drink from, but right now, I’m not sure I could
I begin coming in and out of consciousness, not sure why I feel so weak. I reach out to Kella and feel that she’s just as weak as I am. ‘Kella, what happened?’ I ask. ‘Mate,” is all she says before I’m out again. When I finally open my eyes, I can’t tell what time of day it is, as the sun is filtering through the trees above. Lily is sitting next to me. “Lils?” “Leana! Oh goddess! How are you feeling?” “Weak, what happened?” I ask, still feeling like I have a fog in my brain. She looks past me and I turn my head, seeing Drake sitting far away. “Leana,” I hear him say, his voice sounding like a sob. He gets up and leaves, making me worried that I’ll never see him again. “What were you thinking, Lea?” “About what, exactly?” I ask, still feeling fuzzy. “You let him feed on you,” she hisses at me and everything comes flooding back. The moment Drake tasted my blood, I felt the power in him begin to push against me and Kella. It hadn’t taken long before I realized we were in troub
We push hard all day the next day, only stopping for food, and it isn’t until well into the night that we stop to rest. I’m tired again, but since Drake and Lily let me sleep last night, I agree to take the first shift. Drake lays next to where I’m sitting by the fire. He lays beside me, holding my hand and putting it up against his face, so he can smell my scent. I’m looking down, watching him sleep when I hear a twig snap. I jerk my head up, lifting my nose into the air. I can’t smell anything, but the wind is at my back. I disengage my hand from Drake’s and stand. Besides my mother’s Guardian gift of being able to tell when someone is lying, my strongest Guardian gift is being able to sense auras. I push out and suddenly, I can see the auras of a pack of wolves that have surrounded us and are closing in. I howl a warning as I leap and shift, jumping at the first wolf that breaks through the trees around us. Another comes up behind him and then several others come running out fro
We run all day, trying to make up time. Leana told me that Lily was given a deadline by her mate and she’s trying to make it, but when we finally stop for the night, I realize that she’s going to be late. I don’t know anything about Lily’s relationship with her mate, but if it were me, I’d wait for Leana. I’d wait as long as it took and if Leana decides to reject me, I’ll wait for an eternity, or at least until her life comes to an end, for her to change her mind. When we stop, Leana’s phone begins to ring. I see her look at the caller ID and sigh. “Hey Dad,” she answers. Since she doesn’t move away, I take that as acceptance that I’m going to hear the conversation. “Do you want to explain to me why I heard from your brother nearly a week ago that you and Lily were headed to Araphyra? And why he told me that you’d call and check in with me, but you haven’t? And why I had to hear from Rik that you and Lily had problems with the vampires? Where are you? And why did it take so long for