THREE

HUNTER POV 

 

I run, following Ruth's scent. I find her at one of the many lakes scattered around the kingdom. I whimper and go to my belly as I approach her from the side. "We are sorry! Scarly!! Please forgive us, we really didn't mean it."

"That hurt Hunter! What Nat said! To know you don't believe in me, it hurts. At least I know Phoenix does.."

"I truly am sorry, and I do believe you. I just wanted you to be sure, that's all!" I crawl a little closer, dragging my belly as I move.

 

"I can never stay mad at you Hunter, maybe you should teach Nat how to be a better brother." She laughs and so do I

"Nat also owes Nix an apology as well,"

"Really? Did he put his mouth into it again?"

"Yep, he sort of implied that Phoenix might only want you to become part of the Royal family..."

"He did what??? How did Nix take it?"

"Not well, and Nat has a bruise on his jaw and a nice one on his ribs that both me and Cole are refusing to heal because of it. That was his answer."

I move up and sit next to her. "Ruth, we really are sorry. Come back to the house. Nat has a gift for your birthday as well."

"Okay, let's go! I'll race you!"

She cheats, of course, taking off even before we get a chance to know what she is going to do, but it doesn't take long for me to catch her. We were only a short distance away from the back garden when we were surrounded by two rogue wolves and three rogue vampires. We both come to a skidding stop.

We both growl, as one of the vampires, step forward "We want the Queen, we will trade you two for her... Now shift!"

 

We growl again. No way in hell are we giving these rogues, our mother "We are not giving our mother to them are we?"

"No Scarly! Our mother is needed to keep the peace you proved that at the blood moon a few years ago by getting them back together."

"Good, I spoke to Phoenix to let him know but apparently he already knew because Patrick sent out an alarm to all available patrols saying we had intruders and we were in the middle of them."

"Yeah, another thing courtesy of Nat! Just to make sure you did not come to any harm on your run."

The next thing we know, we are surrounded by more vampires except these vampires are on our side, our patrol guards. Scarlett slightly moves her front paw, which made one of the rogue wolves growl, and one of the vampires to attack us. I jump on the vampire as it went for Scarlett; I kill him, but not before he gets a few good hits in and causes a couple of very deep wounds, causing me to drop to the ground in front of Scarlett.

By killing the vampire caused everyone else to start fighting. I couldn't fight. This made Scarlett step over me and lie down to protect me from another attack. I think she got a few scratches from doing so. It didn't take long for the rogues to all be killed, a couple of the patrol guards had a few cuts and bruises, but they all did well. I have no choice but to shift back to human.

"Nat! You are going to be in pain, but we need you in control so we can repair the damage!"

 

"That's okay Hunter, we protected Scarly, and that is all that matters. Thank you!"

 

Hunter gives me control and I shift. I scream out in pain as soon as the shift is complete, I then pass out from that pain.

 

SERAPHINA POV

 

Dominic and I run out into the back garden as they carry Nathaniel out of the woods. Scarlett isn't far behind, but she bypasses us and runs straight into Phoenix's arms. I smile to myself. I then turn my attention back to Nathaniel. As I reach his side, I try him on our personal link. "Hunter?? Cole?? Nathaniel??"

"Mother, it is Cole. Hunter is trying to heal us and Nathaniel is out cold from the pain."

"Can you rouse enough to drink?"

"Mother, I can not ask that of you!"

"You are not asking... I am telling you to do it!!"

 

I place my wrist over his mouth as Cole stirs, lengthens his fangs. I flinch slightly as he sinks them slowly into my skin, then retracts them so he can drink.

 

"Thank you, Mother. That is helping already, Cole. That is enough. We can do the rest ourselves."

 

Cole swipes his tongue over my skin, sealing it. Within a few minutes, Nathaniel starts to come around. Just as he sits up Scarlett comes over and kneels in front of him as she says, "Why did you do that? Nat, he could have killed you..."

 

"Scarly! Are you okay? Were you hurt?"

 

"No! You stopped him... Nat, why?"

 

"Scarly, you are my sister. No one gets to do anything to you and get away with it but me... I love you, sis."

 

"I love you too bro!! And thank you!"

 

"Nathaniel what did the rogues want?"

 

"Father, they wanted Mother... They didn't say why they wanted her or if they wanted her for someone else, they just said they would trade us for her."

 

"Phoenix, Theodore, increase the patrols again, scatter them, have some hidden. I want to stop these confounded rogues."

 

"Yes, your highness, consider it done."

 

Once Nathaniel is back on his feet, we head back inside. We put Nathaniel on bed rest until the morning and Scarlett comes with me to finish off some of the smaller details for the blood moon ball tomorrow night.

 

SCARLETT POV

I wake up, stretch, and take a deep breath. The room and bed is drenched in an intoxicating scent of pine and vanilla that floods my nose, which makes Ruth go mad inside my head, howling and whimpering at the same time. "MATE!! ITS MATE'S SCENT!! MATE!!"

Unfortunately, I wake up alone. I knew I would as Phoenix had an early patrol to do this morning and he won't be back until later, so I won't see him until the ball tonight. I can't wait to see his face when I enter wearing the dress I found yesterday. I crawl out of bed and go have a shower. As I finish and walk back into the room, there is a light knock on the door. I look over as Nathaniel leans on the door frame, "So, sis! I see you slept here again. Is he your mate?"

"Yes Nat, Nix is my mate... Ruth is going mad in my head as his scent is everywhere and it's really intoxicating."

"I didn't get to give this to you yesterday, happy birthday sis."

He hands me a small box that is really nicely wrapped and tied with a beautiful blue ribbon. I open it and gasp, "It's beautiful Nat!! Did you open the gift I gave you yesterday?"

"No, I have it here!" he pulls it out from behind his back. He opens it and just stares with his mouth open. I pull out the bracelet as he pulls out the amulet. It is like they are a set. "Who would have thought we would have found the two items to give each other that form a beautiful set."

"Only we could! Thank you, Nat, I love it and it will go well with my dress tonight."

"Good, Well sis I must go, Father has some things he wants me to do before the ball tonight."

"Have fun and I will see you later."

I give him a hug as he straightens and walks away. We complete everything and then we all go our separate ways to get ready for the blood moon ball. Once we are all ready, we all meet outside the doors to the old ruins ballroom doors waiting for Sebastian to announce our arrival.

I listen as we stand at the doors waiting for Sebastian to make our introductions as we enter the blood moon ball.

"WELCOME EVERYONE! I WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE ONE OF THE WONDERFUL FEMALES BEHIND THIS EVENINGS EVENT, PLEASE WELCOME THE VAMPIRE PRINCESS JOSEPHINE AND HER MATE ZACHARY!" I clap a little as they enter to everyone cheering,

"NEXT WE HAVE THE WEREWOLF KING NOAH AND HIS MATE QUEEN SERENITY!" I clap again as more cheering and whistling goes through the room

"NEXT WE HAVE THE VAMPIRE KING DOMINIC AND HIS IRREPLACEABLE QUEEN SERAPHINA!" I stifle a little giggle at Sebastian's introduction of my mother, but the cheers and whistles that they get shows just how much they both mean to the kingdoms.

"AND FOR THEIR FIRST OFFICIAL APPEARANCE I WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE PRINCE NATHANIEL AND PRINCESS SCARLETT!"

Nathaniel holds out his arm to me. I place my hand on his elbow and we walk into the room. There are cheers and whistles as we slowly make our way through the room. I look past father to where Phoenix is standing just behind his throne. He has his mouth just open and his eyes are flickering red. I blush and smile. I then see father lean towards him and motion for him to come closer. He whispers something to him. Phoenix then closes his mouth, straightens, and just looks past me as if I was no longer there. We make our way up to where mother and father are sitting. We give them a small bow out of respect. Nathaniel then walks me over to the small throne next to mother. He allows me to sit and then makes his way to his throne next to father.

I felt a little hurt once he made me feel like I was invisible to him, but I do understand that he is the second to father and we are not officially mates yet, so tonight I am nothing to him; I am just another member of the Royal family.

Ruth and Cara are going insane inside my head, wanting to touch him, wanting him to touch us. We haven't seen him all day due to the blood moon ball commitments for both of us.

Once the music starts again, everyone starts dancing. It isn't long before father gets to his feet, holds out his hand, and asks my mother to dance. She takes it and they make their way down the steps; I hear her low squeal as he sweeps her off her feet and around the dance floor.

Nathaniel gets to his feet as a female approaches and asks him shyly to dance. He nods, takes her hand, and makes his way to the dance floor. I sneak a couple of glances at Phoenix, who is still standing by my father's chair, just watching everyone dance. Once a couple of songs have finished, my father leads mother back to her seat and comes over to me.

He holds out his hand and bows. "Scarlett, may I have a dance?"

I smile and take his hand. He then leads me out onto the dance floor. As we move, I whisper, "Father! What did you say to Nix? He won't even look at me?"

"Sorry Scar, but once you had entered, and I saw you smile and blush in his direction, I had to remind him and Soren that we are at an official event, he is the second in command and he is on protection detail tonight. I needed him to remember that, so he didn't do something he shouldn't, at least until you and him are actually mated."

"But Father... I wanted to at least have a dance with him!"

"I'll tell you what, first you be the princess of our kingdom and dance with some of the other males here tonight, and then you can have a couple of dances with him later."

"Okay, Father!"

"Good, now how about we show these people how you are meant to dance..."