Release

by C. M. Steele

  “I already did. You’ll see,” he muttered. He was a dead man as soon as he got out of here. Luckily, I’d been wearing a coat and took it off after I got into the interrogation room. I slid on my leather jacket and led Nora out of the door. Dante shook violently with rage. His clothes partially burnt, and his face covered in dirt. “Someone bombed the car,” I heard him grunt.

  “They ran off,” a bystander said.

  “Did you get a look at the person and the way they went?” one of the cops asked. I had the most terrible feeling.

  “What happened? Where’s Mary?” I asked him, gripping his shoulders.

  “She’d been in the car. I stepped out to look at the pets in the store across the street, but mother didn’t want to get out.”

  “We’ll get them for this,” I uttered just loud enough for Nora and Dante to hear.

  “You all have cameras around here. Find out who did this. We just rented this damn car on the way here.” I looked right past the cop I was talking to and directly at Jones. “I’d check all the cameras. Maybe even those inside.” I had a feeling they would have malfunctioned.

  “You truly have someone who hates you, Dr. Lombardi.”

  “Yes, and yet the only ones who knew I was coming here was your people. If I was you I’d look for Norton’s killer much closer to home. I will not be coming back for an interview again.” I held my mate as she cried her heart out.

  Is that blood on his shirt? How did he get that? I just walked him into the interrogation room, then Jones followed him in for the interview. He gave Jones a death glare. Maybe there was something to it; I needed to look at the cameras when Jones left for the night.

  “Come, Dante, let’s go find a way to the hotel,” I told him. He followed, but it was clear that he was in shock.

  “Does he need a doctor?” another cop asked.

  “I am a doctor. I’ll tend to my nephew.” I wiped the stray tear that I shed for Dante. I didn’t have any tears for Mary. She wanted to go. No amount of babies was going to heal the pain of losing Alessio. The heartache got to her more than she let on. A part of me thinks she knew it was going to happen and sent Dante to check out the place across the street. I had to ask Charlotte about it another time. Right now, I had to console my nephew and wife.

  We walked down the street getting away from the scene, then jumped into a cab. I had it drop us off two miles away in front of a Hilton; just in case we were followed by Jones or his helper. I already had a feeling that Stavros’s wife was the one who did it. As soon as we made it inside the hotel, I requested a room and the moment we got in there, I hugged my nephew. “She’s where she wants to be, Dante.”

  “I know, but it still hurts. I’m sorry for being weak, Uncle.”

  “You’re not weak, Dante. I cried more times than I could remember when my mother died. I wanted her back so badly. She had been my confidant and the loving woman I needed to shield me away from the ugly in the world, but it wasn’t to be. They are together and happy.”

  “Thank you, Uncle. I suppose we should tell everyone.”

  “I will if you aren’t willing to do so. Do you wish to stay here or return home?”

  “I want to go home.”

  “We’ll go with you,” I said. We got downstairs to leave and that was when miracles happened. My nephew had lost his mind. In front of us stood a young lady with red hair staring at him. She had been about to check out of the hotel.

  “Mine.”

  Nora stepped away from us and to the woman. I dragged my nephew away for a moment. His temperament was fragile at the moment and we couldn’t scare the girl away. Damn if that was what I looked like when Nora saw me, I was lucky she stayed. He looked like he was ready to tear apart someone just to get to her.

  “Calm down, nephew. I’ve been here before. We’ll take this somewhere private.” He nodded, and Nora smiled kindly walking up with the woman who couldn’t stop staring at Dante. Fate had its ways of working things out.

  Chapter 49

  Leonora

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t stay here. I want to find my way. I feel like I have to go and meet more shifters.” I could see the regret in his eyes, but the war was over for all intents and purposes. Of course, there would be some that wanted to see us fail and take over, but until then, we were safe.

  I gave him a brief hug, then was tugged back into Falcon’s hold. I reassured him, “William, you don’t owe us an explanation or anything. The war is over and you’re free to do what you please.”

  “I hate leaving all of you. You’re the only family I have. If you need me to stay on guard I can,” he offered.

  “No, Nora is right. You go and live your life. Maybe find your forever. We’ll be over there sometime in future to visit,” Falcon added, shaking William’s hand.

  “Hey, Hybrid, I’m going to miss you, too,” Gideon teased, patting William’s head like had when William was a dog. They had a great bond, but I think William wanted more.

  “Asshole. What are your plans now that the war’s over?”

  “It’s not quite over, but I plan to stick around and build a business to make money again. There’s only so much money I have left. And I plan to stay alive for a very long time,” Gideon said.

  We all said goodbye to him, Draco and Charlotte saving their goodbyes for the trip. They were taking him and to go visit the shifters themselves. After all, Charlotte needed more answers. I wished her good luck and hugged them all. Crying foolishly, like I wouldn’t see them again, I knew it was my hormones doing laps in my body.

  Our life was finally calming down. It felt good; it felt really damn good.

  “Gideon, are you going back to London to rebuild your business?” Falcon asked him. I could see his resolve teetering. I know that he wanted to be at our side and at the same time wanted to make the money.

  “I want to establish a business here in Italy and in England. I have the capability for it. It’s just a matter of what you need from me,” he said.

  “For the time being, we’re safe. So I say set up in England and come back to expand in Italy. Remember if I need you, I can scoop you up. Fuck, if you wanted to visit us,” Falcon told him.

  “I’m going to miss all of you. Damn, I don’t know if I can go back without trying to kick people’s asses,” Gideon admitted.

  “Well, we still plan to train soldiers just in case we have even small skirmishes.” I hated to consider a new war. I just wanted some relaxation instead of constant battles. Maybe one day we’ll have that for good, once people realize that they can’t beat my mate and best friend. The two of them together with his mother’s knowledge passed down through the book can defeat anyone.

  “Oh, definitely bring me in for some weekly training.” He rubbed his hands together enthusiastically. I shook my head, but at least we were sure he would be there for us.

  They went to discuss some more business while I took my princess to the lab. I had a lot of work to do and she needed to be cared for. I should hire a part-time nanny for her, but then again, I didn’t want to leave it up to anyone else. With the new baby coming, we’d probably need a little help. The castle had a lot of staff managing the upkeep of a castle, but I didn’t trust just anyone with Speranza. And the more I thought about it, the more it became less and less appealing. Maybe Charlotte and I could take turns watching the kids, so we had alone time with our mates.

  I was definitely bringing it up to her when she got back.

  Vigo was already in the lab waiting to take the next round of blood from me.

  “How’s Olga?” I asked him, taking a seat in the blood-letting chair that they have in the donation centers.

  “She’s loving the sunlight. She’s even started considering a garden. How are you feeling with this new baby coming?”

  “I’m doing well. With peace finally here, I feel loads better. I just want to spend time with Falcon like we should have been when we first mated.”

  “You’ll get there. I’m sure of it
,” he added while wiping my arm with an alcohol swab before sticking in the needle.

  Epilogue

  Falcon

  Three Months later…

  The new year rang in with a celebration held at the castle. I looked over the masses as they wore ball gowns, suits, and masks. The band played on as I led my Queen onto the dance floor for our first dance of the new year. “All hail the King and Queen,” they chanted. Every single thing was perfect, my daughter rested in Dante’s arms as we celebrated, and his wife Bianca sat on the side, her belly starting to grow with the next generation of Lombardi’s. We had lost so many during the war that babies were about to be born all around our world. Jones had slipped from our grasps because of Dante’s mating. But fate had not been on his side. They “developed” evidence that he was the one who killed Norton. Of course, I may or may not have had something to do with it. He was arrested three weeks later in England and extradited back. He hung himself in his cell last night. I guess he realized that he outlived his purpose for Mrs. Stavros. Oh well, the bastard deserved his fate. I hoped that the witch stayed hidden. She hadn’t suffered from the curse, but since Stavros did, she had to live that way. Many still hadn’t come to surrender and receive the serum, but that was fine with us. We had a waiting line a mile long. Traitors were no priority for us.

  Since we found the cure, a quarter of our people had been treated with the serum, making things stressful. Nora wanted to give them all the cure immediately, but she was tired and pregnant. It wasn’t easy, and the people knew it. So far those who had been cured also became pregnant. Our population will start being replenished.

  For now, we had to celebrate the life to come. And like that, I felt the water splash down my legs. Nora keeled over, and I lost it. She was having the baby. I cradled Nora in my arms and rushed over to my nephew. “Give the baby to Nora.” Dante put Speranza in Nora’s arms and I teleported to the sounds of the crowd cheering in celebration.

  Nora stared into our baby girl’s eyes and calmed down. Charlotte rushed in to assist in the delivery with Bianca coming as well seconds later.

  Two hours later my son Lorenzo was born.

  “Oh no,” Charlotte muttered to herself.

  I stared her down with my new baby in my arms. “What’s the ‘oh no’?” Could she have had a vision about my little man?

  “It seems Stavros left his lasting mark on the world.”

  “What do you mean?” A sense of dread filled me. The only thing that came to mind was that they had a kid I didn’t know about.

  “His wife is having a baby,” she explained my biggest fear.

  “Can you see anything else?” Nora panted. She’d just given birth, but she never looked more beautiful.

  “For now, that’s it.”

  “What else are you hiding?” I challenged.

  She patted my arm and said, “Nothing bad. Don’t worry about the future. Fate finds a way.”

  ~~~~

  Eighteen years passed…and trouble came…in the form of my daughter mating with someone I never expected. I wanted to kill him.

  I always thought she would mate with Marco. He was tall, as large as Draco with his same character. But instead, they are best friends. They are close like Draco and I and Charlotte and Nora. I grumbled, pacing the floor of our bedchambers.

  “Remember, Falcon. There’s nothing you can do.” Nora thought it was cute and funny. She actually was happy about it.

  “She’s my baby girl.”

  “Weren’t you just saying last week that you couldn’t wait to pawn her off?”

  “That was different. She had been experimenting with new spells and ruined my shoes.”

  “Well, she can ruin his shoes now.”

  “I will just envision killing him. Now I know why we don’t have daughters.” I thrust my hand through my hair, thoroughly pissed. I knew there was nothing I could do. They were eternally happy, and fate decided her destiny a long time ago. “I knew I should have killed him when I had the chance.”

  “Come to bed, my King.” She wagged her finger at me, summoning me to her and I forgot about my daughter mating with anyone.

  Bonus Epilogue

  Speranza

  At sixteen…

  He was here again. Anytime that he came near I felt the fluttering in my stomach that couldn’t be explained in a vampire way. And every time he left, I cried my heart out. My Aunt had caught on to these emotional breakdowns that I tried so hard to keep a secret. She promised never to tell, but I worried that it wouldn’t matter. I’d been so different than the others that maybe I wasn’t destined for the same life of happiness.

  I dreamed of him every night. Things that made my face fill with blood until I was so heated that I had to hide away from my family so no one recognized it.

  Most days, I hid away in my parents’ lab, working on experiments mostly a new synthetic blood replacement meal. Kind of like a human’s granola bar, except to our tastes. I wasn’t big on human food at all. I loved my meat raw and my vegetables non-existent. With the humans gorging on all the wildlife that left little for us unless we raised our own livestock.

  There was a knock at my door, and I opened it to see him standing there, looking as handsome as always. Goodness, I had a human’s love for him. But it didn’t work that way, at least it didn’t for him. He hadn’t found his mate yet, but I obviously didn’t fit the human criteria. How was I ever going to deal with him finding his mate? Would I find a human and forget about my feelings? Would they vanish as if they were never there? Or would I suffer from unrequited love like the human movies I’ve been watching?

  “Hello,” I muttered out.

  “Princess, I must go. I came to say goodbye.”

  “You didn’t have to,” I sneered, catching the hurt in his green eyes. I shoved it off because he didn’t understand what he was doing to me. My coldness was nothing to him because to him I was nothing more than the Princess.

  “I had to. I’m going to miss you.” He turned on his heel and disappeared from my sight before I realized it. A new gift he developed over the years. And more pain he brought to me.

  At Eighteen…

  I stood in front of my floor length mirror, feeling hollow. Two years and I could no longer deal with the pain of waiting to see him again. He had the ability to appear here at the drop of hat, but he hadn’t bothered. His words were empty and so was my existence.

  I closed my eyes and cried internally so that no one would know my agony. I felt the hands before I saw my aunt. She wrapped her arms around my waist for a hug, then pressed her chin on my shoulder. I had my mother’s height, but I loved that my father towered over her, cared for her, and cherished her. I longed to look up into the eyes of my mate and see his devotion.

  “Stop,” Aunt Charlotte said.

  “It hurts,” I cried.

  “No, you don’t need to cry.”

  “My heart’s broken aunt. I don’t want a party. I want to be left alone. What’s there to celebrate? No human I’ve met has ever come close to the visions I have of him and me.” She spun me around.

  Then she looked me in the eyes and said, “If tonight doesn’t make you happy you can travel with me to the states. We’re going to visit our friends in Washington.”

  “That would be great. Maybe my real mate will be there.”

  “Well, for now, spend the night on the dance floor meeting those who could be the one,” she offered.

  “My goodness,” my mother said, walking into the room. “You look beautiful. Come, my princess. This is the night to celebrate your birth. Marco and you must have a splendid night. Even if your favorite doesn’t show.”

  “What? You told her?” I screeched at my aunt.

  “No, dear. She didn’t. I’ve been married to the man I look at like that for eighteen years. Your heart is on your sleeve. Have faith that it’ll all work out. Now don’t disappoint your cousin. His mating doesn’t kick in just yet. He needs to spin you around the dance floor.” />
  “Dad?”

  “No, he doesn’t know. He’s a man. Darling, if it wasn’t for mating signals, they wouldn’t have a clue.”

  We all laughed so hard tears fell from our eyes. “Ladies, what’s so funny?”

  “Falcon, you know you shouldn’t just pop in here.”

  “Very well, we have a house full of guests.”

  “House? We live in a castle, daddy.”

  “That we do, princess, now let us celebrate the day you made me a king,” he took my hand and led me down the stairs. The ballroom was crowded with hundreds of guests in their masks. They had been dancing, but my arrival halted the music. Marco ran up the stairs, meeting me halfway. He took my hand and guided me down the rest of the way. The crowd cheered as he led me to the center of the dance floor. I smiled up at him and the music began again.

  “You look radiant, cousin,” he whispered. Heavens, Marco had changed before my eyes. I hadn’t recognized the man before me. He would make his mate a very lucky woman. He would be going on an adventure this year, taking him around the world. I was so happy for him.

  “Thank you. I must say you clean up really well.”

  “That I do. It was my father’s idea for me to look debonair as he calls it.”

  “Well, you do.” He spun me around, so I would stop talking about it as the blush crept up his face.

  We technically weren’t eighteen for another few hours, but that was why the ball was held at midnight. The night would end as the clock struck our hour of birth and the sun started to rise.

  Our parents came into the fold dancing around us. A part of them hoped that Marco and I would mate since we really weren’t cousins, but I never felt any romantic feelings for him. And he was kind of a butthead to me.

  The rest of the night was spent dancing and speaking with all those around. So many people my parents knew were here. The one person I hoped would come didn’t have the decency to show for a few seconds.