by Anna Santos
I nodded, agreeing. For all I had seen, nothing would make me believe that they were not what they seemed to be—a peacefully mixed-breed community, protecting each other, and really strong and kind. “And the other file you mentioned?”
“Well, here is what you may find difficult to believe, if you don’t let me show you my thoughts. I was also taken aback by the wonderful coincidence. Anika Isobel,” he whispered my real name, the name I’d had to change. My body froze and my eyes widened, amazed and terrified at the same time. “The other file was about Anika, about you.”
“Why did you have a file about me? And how do you know my former name?”
“You see, honey, your father was a well-known vampire before he disappeared with your mom because of their forbidden love. And I knew him really well,” he explained, and my heart stopped. “Anika!” he exclaimed, sounding worried.
“My name is Anna now. It has been for a long time.” I breathed deep to try to get control of my emotions. “Anika is dead. Stop calling me that.”
“Actually, you just mixed Anika and Isobel together. Anna is a pet name for Anika. Isobel was the name of your dad’s mom. I do like Annabel better,” he said, grinning.
“Dad would always call me Anna anyway, and Mom called me Belle. But why did you have a file on me? Why would I interest you?”
“I was looking for you. Your grandfather and your uncles were all looking for you and your brother since the attack that took your parents’s lives.”
“What do you mean my grandfather and uncles were looking for me?”
“Your father was a vampire prince. The king of these lands is your grandfather.”
I stared at Shane, baffled by his words. For a moment, I thought he was kidding. He was messing with me. However, he didn’t even flinch, and his face was solemn. Besides the aristocratic title and other stuff that suddenly came to mind, one other thought overwhelmed my heart with happiness.
I smiled, almost crying. “I have more family! I have a grandfather!” I felt so excited, and tears started to fall from my eyes, even though I was thrilled and wanted to jump. Then, other thoughts came to my head: by having a family, a pureblood vampire family, I would be able to save my brother. When Kevin woke up, he would be as amazed as I. If my grandfather was that keen on finding me, he wouldn’t let my brother die. At least, I hoped he wouldn’t.
“Your father renounced the throne to marry your mom. He was the next in line.” Shane was cleaning my tears with his thumbs.
“But why?” I asked, suddenly confused. “Why did my dad go away and turn his back on his family? Didn’t they approve his marriage? And how do you know that it’s me you were looking for? And how did you even start to suspect all of this about me?”
“Calm down, honey. I will explain it all to you.”
“My dad never talked about his past. At least, not his family. He said all his family was gone and that we were his family. When I was old enough to understand, he explained to me what I was and what he and Mom were. He taught me how to defend myself, how to be proud of my legacy, and he taught me not to be afraid. My mom’s family was all the other family I had known. So why are they looking for me?” I was still a bit taken aback and wondered what they could possibly want with my brother and me, since my dad had had to go away and reject his family to marry my mom.
“To take care of you, of course. Your grandfather tried to reconnect with your dad. He tried to convince George that he had changed, that his marriage and his kids would be accepted amongst our community. Then, all that tragedy happened to George. For a while, everybody was made to believe that you and your brother had also died. Then we got news that Alaric was pursuing George’s kids. Once again, we tried to get you to safety, but whoever was hiding you two was good at covering their tracks. Neither we nor Alaric were able to find you.”
“Wait,” I whispered, understanding something. “Alaric. The way you say that name. That’s the name of the vampire who killed my parents. My father knew him, I’m sure he did. And you say his name as if you also know him well.”
“That’s because I do. You see, honey, we have a lot in common, more than you could realize. But we will talk about that later.”
“You say you knew my father,” I mumbled, sucking in all the information that Shane was spilling onto me. “How are you so sure that the kids you are looking for are me and my brother?”
“I had no idea it was you until you told me how your parents died. And your age, the coincidences, the fact that your father was a pureblood vampire and your mom a panther. And we did a DNA test. The results arrived today. That was why Eric was in such a hurry to meet you.”
“Eric,” I whispered, opening my eyes wide. “He’s my uncle, isn’t he? That’s why he wanted to see me. To tell me he was my uncle. But… then, why didn’t you let him?”
“Yes, but I had to talk to you first. To explain to you what was going on. He had no right to do that to me. You would have been blindsided by this news. I was going to tell you tonight, but then you got all stressed by the arrival of your cousin,” he tried to explain as best he could. “I was going to tell you at home. I swear I was, Annabel.”
The world was spinning under my feet as never before. All those new facts about my life were buzzing inside my mind, even if Shane didn’t want to hurt me. The fact was that he hadn’t trusted me. Shane had been investigating my life behind my back. Besides, he’d never shared his suspicions with me.
“You can trust me, Anna. Didn’t your father ever talk about his family? About me? I was his best friend before he disappeared with your mom.” I shook my head. “Are you still mad at me?” he asked. I shrugged my shoulders, not knowing how to answer him. I didn’t know. I was more numb than alive.
“Is Sasha my aunt?” I asked, after getting caught up in my thoughts for a while. Things were getting weird. Shane claiming the king was my grandfather, him being my dad’s best friend, and James teasing Shane about princesses. I guess I was a princess. And if Sasha was also a princess—things were definitely weird!
“No, Sasha is your cousin. She is June’s daughter. June is your aunt. You have another cousin who is Sasha’s brother. But he’s still a teenager.”
“Cousin,” I mumbled, displeased with the idea, but there was nothing I could do about it. “Does she know?” I wondered with a wicked smile.
“Not yet. She will know soon, after you talk to the king and the prince. Anna.” He hesitated. “Are we okay?”
“We need to talk to the king,” I realized suddenly. But before I could explain why, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I had received a message. I pushed Shane away from me and took a look at the screen. It was Jason. He was asking me to meet him right away. He had important information for me. He insisted it was rather urgent. I stared at Shane, who had his big blue eyes on me. I had purposely ignored his question. “I need to go.”
“Anna, don’t be like this,” he said with a sad voice. It was hard to not give in to him, but I was mad and wanted to stay mad. “I still need to find out who could possibly have stolen the files. And I don’t want to leave, not while you are mad with me.”
“You followed me, didn’t you?” I asked. My phone vibrated again, and I looked at it, taking my eyes off of Shane’s guilty eyes. He didn’t need to answer. I already knew the answer. Jason was texting me to call him and tell him I was okay. He was also asking if my wolf had locked me up so I couldn’t escape. That was a really weird question.
“I was worried,” Shane said, putting his hand over mine. My phone vibrated again; it was Jason calling me. He must be worried, texting, and then calling. But I had been worried before and he hadn’t even bother to answer his phone or text me back, so he could wait.
“Tell me you forgive me.”
“I just want one thing from you now. I want you to take me to my grandfather. I need to save my brother,” I said with serious face. He looked even more miserable than before, but I didn’t even blink.
“You sai
d… your brother was gone. Is he still alive?”
“I’ve been keeping him alive with my own blood, but he’s fading fast. He was hit by a dart infected with the killing-hybrid serum, but because he had vampire pureblood, he didn’t die immediately. His blood tried to fight the virus, but he eventually slipped into a deep coma. I have been donating my own blood weekly to keep him alive, but only pure vampire blood can cure him.”
“I will talk to Eric immediately,” Shane said, taking his phone from his pocket and dialing a number. “You should have trusted me with that information sooner. We could have already saved Kevin.”
“You better not go there,” I said, watching my phone ring for the third time.
“I promise you, I will get those files back, but you should warn your friends and tell them to get out of the house,” Shane said, waiting for someone to pick up on the other side.
“Forgive me if I’m not willing to believe your promises at the moment,” I said, turning my back on him and answering the phone to talk to Jason and warn him about what was happening. But somehow, I suspected that Jason’s arrival to town had something to do with the files getting stolen.
I would put Shane at ease after I checked out my suspicions with Jason. For the time being, Shane needed a bit of a punishment for being so sneaky. Being all gorgeous and cute was not going to help him at the moment. He was going to have to work for my forgiveness.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Anna
The missing files became a solved problem after talking to Jason. Shane could relax now. It had been my sneaky cousin who had taken the files. My organization had found out about the little investigation Shane and my birth family were pursuing; in particular, the hacking into our servers did not go undetected and in fact helped us find out information about the people who were trying to hack us. We had Liam, a computer genius able to put to shame most of the supercomputers and geniuses trying to hide stuff from us.
That was why Jason had been calling me. He wanted to tell me that I still had family, that they were looking for me, and that Shane had a file on the organization members, including me. Well, that news was old already, so after calming him and telling him to call the clinic to prepare the doctors and the scientists for me and my guests’ arrival, Jason was reassured. He planned to join me later in the clinic, to keep me company and wait for Kevin’s awakening. At least we hoped my brother would wake up and get well.
So, with the problem of the files solved, it was time to leave, visit my newfound family, and ask for their help.
As soon as we left James’s room, Shane and I saw a crowd in the corridor that was waiting for us near the stairs. Had they heard everything we’d said? The room had seemed to be soundproof, so why were they all gathered there?
I walked further down the corridor, looking at the mix of some familiar faces and some I’d never seen before in my life. Step by step, people bowed to me. It was awkward and weird. Shane was behind me, which made me feel safer. Apparently, everybody already knew that I was an almighty princess. The idea was disturbing, as were the bows and the surprised looks on people’s faces. It was as if I was a rare animal on display. I continued to walk, aiming for the car where I could finally breathe and stop being the center of attention. However, my plans didn’t work quite as well as I’d wanted.
As I was preparing myself to go down the stairs and face another crowd of curious people, I froze. Downstairs, facing me, was a tall blond man. He had penetrating blue eyes, a well-built figure, and an apprehensive face. He could have been beautiful, even a heavenly sight, if he didn’t look so much like the man who had killed my father and my mom!
It was getting hard to breath. I thought I would be unmerciful and attack him on the day I first faced him. But I was just frozen in place, watching the vampire slowly climb the stairs toward me. I needed to move, but I couldn’t. Shane should do something. I needed him to do something. Why wasn’t he reacting? I wanted to… I tilted my head and looked at the vampire closely.
He was a few inches from me, still staring at me. His eyes were sweet and kind. Weirdly kind. He should hate me. He wanted to kill me for all I knew. Something was wrong. Why did he look so much like my father? Now that he was closer to me, he looked just like my father.
This was not Alaric.
Had I imagined it? Was I going crazy? First, I’d thought he was Alaric, that hateful jerk. But now that he was in front of me, I could see his eyes and his kind face, and he looked just like Dad! He was a slimmer, younger version of Dad with the same blue eyes. Alaric’s eyes weren’t blue. They were red when he was turned and green when he was concealing his vampire form. Alaric’s eyes didn’t have that happiness and kindness in them, either. Besides, Alaric was smaller than the man in front of me. His nose was also different and his lips were plumper. This vampire’s lips were like my dad’s lips. He had my dad’s traits; he was my dad’s brother. This was Eric.
“Uncle?” I asked, out of breath, just to make sure I was not going crazy.
He nodded and gave me a warm smile, and then he pulled me into a bear hug, catching me off guard. I was squeezed inside his arms and was about to ask for help when he let me go and stared at my face again. God, he was tall and strong! He also had a nice happy smile with perfect white teeth. Kevin had eyes and eyebrows like him, because Kevin was the one who resembled Dad the most. He was blond and handsome. I had my mother’s black hair and slim, small figure. I was almost crying at all the thoughts and memories that rushed back into my head.
“You are so beautiful! You look a lot like my mom, and you have your father’s eyes,” he said, his voice soft yet masculine. “For a moment there, I thought you were seeing a ghost and that you were going to run away from me!”
He laughed, but I was still a bit taken aback, unable to laugh right then. I was intrigued and still puzzled by the resemblances. Why had I never noticed that Dad resembled Alaric? If Eric looked like Alaric and my dad looked like Eric, then… I was trying not to verbalize my thoughts, the scary conclusion.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” my uncle asked.
“What’s wrong, Anna?” Shane questioned, stepping in front of me and making me look at him. My mate. That was what my mind kept saying to me. But Shane hadn’t trusted me. He had followed me. And now he was acting like I shouldn’t be mad at him. Besides, he was keeping another secret from me, because he should have known this. I should have realized it. When he said his name, when he said that cursed name like he knew him well.
Shane knew that Alaric was my uncle, my twisted, evil uncle.
I straightened myself, taking a big breath and motioning to Shane that I was okay. I just needed space. He obeyed, hurt in his eyes, those big adorable puppy eyes that I was trying hard to ignore so I could keep on my mean face. “I need to talk to grandfather,” I said to my uncle, who was now a bit more serious and perhaps intrigued by the way I was acting. I should have been happier, but the new revelations were heavy on my heart. Besides, I needed to talk to them about my brother.
Eric nodded to me and smiled. I did my best to not smile back. I was worried, and I was sad. I was feeling miserable about being mad at Shane. I felt like the weight of the world was falling on me. As if all perfection had been tainted by all the secrets we’d kept from each other. Everything had turned out for the best, though. We hadn’t lied about our feelings for one another. But I couldn’t understand why Shane hadn’t told me who I was when he found out.
My uncle took my hand, and I followed him, still wrapped up within my thoughts, down the stairs and out to a fancy car flanked by two other fancy cars with his bodyguards inside. He was well protected. Someone could possibly look at him and think he was the president of the country or at least the governor of some state.
I was feeling pretty numb because of everything that I had found out; suddenly I realized I was inside the car with my uncle and there was no sign of Shane. The car was already in motion. My entire body shook and my soul felt like it was going to
break apart, sad and alone. I missed Shane beside me. It was as if a wave of cold had fallen over me that was stopping any heat from warming my body. I needed and wanted Shane by my side, even if I didn’t want to talk to him and was mad at him.
“Are you okay, honey?” my Uncle Eric asked me, probably noticing that I was looking around as though I was lost and confused.
“Where is Shane?” I inquired. What if I never saw him again and he thought I was rejecting him? Would he leave and never come back?
“He’s following us in his car. He knows the way, don’t worry.”
This made me feel a little calmer. I couldn’t help but stare at Eric. He had such a nice voice and smile! I was glad that my uncle was friendly and seemed harmless. I began to notice the similarities and differences between him and my dad.
“I’m really happy to meet you. I know Dad will also love you. You are so beautiful,” he whispered, holding my hand. “You don’t need to be afraid of us. We don’t want any harm to come to you. We’ve looked for you for so long! I’m really glad you survived. And I’m also really happy for Shane and you for being mates. Your dad would be happy, too. Actually, he would be more than happy. Shane and he were really good friends. He would probably want to beat up Shane first, but he would be happy for the two of you being together.”
That statement made me chuckle. Daddy would most definitely kick Shane’s ass first. Not that I would let him do that, but he was really protective when he was alive. He had warned away other boys from school when he knew I had a crush on them or when they’d wanted to be more than my friends. However, I was a big girl now. I could take care of myself and I could… I was just happy to know that Dad would approve of Shane.
“So, how are you coping with all this?” he asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“I don’t know. When Shane told me, I was a bit shocked. I had no clue that Shane knew my father or that my family lived here,” I said, trying to smile at him, to reassure him that I was not afraid and I trusted them. They had no reason to harm me.
