by Jen L. Grey
"He already said no." Richard's voice raised, and the words were rushed. "Do you want to keep insulting him?"
"Oh, dear cousin." I wanted to barf at the words, but I forced them out without wincing somehow. "I'm not insulting him. We only want to make sure that we don't need to offer more protection or help with any endeavors involving any of the other supernatural races."
Something almost akin to doubt filled his eyes. "No, everything is fine here." He cleared his throat and grabbed the cup of coffee that had been placed in front of him. "Why were the other places being attacked?"
"Not sure." That wasn't a lie. They'd said that they'd been having issues with the vampires before my arrival. "They just stated that the vampires had gotten out of control and were acting a little more brazen than in the past."
"That has to be an overstatement." Richard placed his hands on the table.
He chose his words carefully. My stomach soured at how well my family was at manipulating everything.
This whole thing is ridiculous. Mason was becoming more and more agitated. "Well, seeing as you weren't there, how would you know?"
"Because he's a know-it-all that lies through his teeth." Ella stared him down.
"I don't have to stay here and be insulted." Richard pushed back and stood. "I thought we could come here and talk family to family, but all you're doing is throwing accusations at me and my parents."
"It'd probably be best if we left." Brent stood as well and glanced at me. "I'm sorry, but I'll be petitioning for your cousin to take the crown. You falsely accused his father of attempted murder and locked your own family up in prison. You hadn't even bothered to call or check on the southern packs until you heard of our move against your reign. It proves that you have favoritism and are only out for your best interests." He cleared his throat and nodded at Richard. "Let's go."
Despite his entire speech, there was something about his eyes. Uncertainty or maybe even fear shone there.
"And I expected better of you, young prince." Richard scowled at Louis and shook his head. "This won't bode well for you."
The two of them turned, heading toward the door, leaving us all in the aftermath.
"What the fuck was that?" Ella's voice was a little too loud, making the closest table to us turn in our direction.
"Calm down," Mona warned.
"Hey, at least, I waited this long." Ella pointed her finger at Louis. "You better be glad I love you or you'd be missing an important appendage, considering how many times you told me to stay quiet."
"I'm not scared." He picked up a glass of water and took a sip. "You would never cut that off. It would be just as much of a punishment for you as me."
"Please, for the love of God, don't say that in front of me." Mason closed his eyes and shook his head. "There are some things I don't want to know about."
"Like what I had to hear this morning when I knocked on your door?" Ella tilted her head to the side.
"You knocked on our bedroom door. You were asking for it." He pointed at the table. "You're doing that here at a table where we're all in front of people."
"Can we focus on what's important here?" I loved these two, but what had gone down was not good. "We have a serious threat."
"They couldn't possibly get enough votes, could they?" Louis leaned back when he took in my face.
"What votes?" Mason glanced between the two of us.
"If more than half of the United States alphas vote against you two as King and Queen, Richard could be appointed to the position." Kassie shook her head, and her face was a shade red with pure anger. "I never thought someone would stoop so low."
"Is that even possible?" Mason pulled me closer to his side. "I mean I'd never heard about it."
"It is but extremely rare." Tommy shook his head as the waitress appeared in front of us again.
"Here is your food." She began passing the plates out but paused when she got to Richard and Brent's vacant seats. "Uh, are they coming back?"
"No, but go ahead and set it down." Ella pointed at the open spot in front of her. "I stress eat."
The lady began to giggle and stopped when Ella didn't laugh with her. "Oh, you're being serious."
"Hell yeah, I am."
"Okay, here you go." She placed the plates on the table and ran off.
Ella grabbed her fork, stabbed three pieces of sausage, and crammed them into her mouth. "Te’ me m’r."
A laugh escaped me. I needed that. "If he gets more than half of the alphas to side with him, we could be overthrown."
"That just means that the attacks are going to ramp up." Louis shook his head, and his shoulders tensed. "They're going to make sure we're preoccupied."
I hadn't even considered that possibility, but he could be right. If we were busy with our own, personal attacks or attacks on other packs, we wouldn't be able to visit the rest of the packs to gain support on our side. I wasn't sure how the hell to proceed from here.
Chapter Twelve
I shoved my clothes back into the duffle bag that Mason and I shared.
"What did that bag ever do to you?" Mason strolled from the bathroom to our bedroom. He had a small smile spread across his face, but his eyes were tight, and his muscles tensed.
Our entire group had been a bundle of nerves since we left breakfast. "Its compliance is threatening. It's not being difficult like every other alpha out there."
"Yeah, but don't worry. I'm sure it'll get ornery on the plane ride and pop open or something." He walked over and placed his hands on my shoulders.
"Do you think we should go to Nashville first before heading home?" That was the other alpha who was giving us apprehension, and he was tight with Brent. It seemed hopeless.
"Maybe." He took a deep breath. "I didn't expect this to be so hard."
"You thought being a ruler wouldn't be difficult?" I couldn't blame him. No one really knew what royal life was like. It wasn't one that was easy to explain.
"Well, yeah." He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close. "Every pack has an alpha that takes care of them. I figured the top alpha didn't have to worry about much. Boy, was I wrong."
"A lot of people don't see behind the scenes." I took a deep breath and couldn't believe that it was already turning dark outside. We'd come back up to the room right after the meeting, and each one of us began to fall apart in a way. No one could decide on what the correct next step would be, but we all agreed it wasn't staying here. Brent may have doubts now, but he wasn't going to risk turning on Richard. It would take a miracle for that to happen.
"It’s really easy for packs to misunderstand how busy royals truly are." He sighed. "I hate that I was so blind."
"It's not your fault. My dad always said in order to be an effective ruler, others shouldn't know you're struggling." Those words were uttered to me one night after my mother's last relative had died. It was her father, and he had always been instrumental to hers and my life. We had to meet with several alphas the night of the funeral, and I broke down crying in my room. He'd pulled me aside and spoke those words to me. "You should always hold your head high even when you're sad. As long as you appear strong, others will never underestimate you. It's not fair, but being picked for this life is not a choice. It's a destiny. He then wrapped his arms around me, told me he loved me and to cry it out before we went downstairs. We were twenty minutes late because both he and I mourned my grandfather together."
"Wow, your dad was a great man." He spun me around and stared into my eyes. "He'd be so proud of you. Hell, I'm sure he is as he watches from above."
"I hope so. Can you believe he got accused of being insensitive with their time and that a true king would not make their people wait?" I remembered being so pissed. Though instead of explaining why or being rude, he only nodded his head and told them he understood. That something had come up and that it wouldn't happen again.
A knock on our open door had us turning toward it. Kassie was there, and her face was a shade more pale th
an usual.
"What's wrong?" Whatever it was, it wouldn't be good.
"We just got a call from Brent." Instead of being angry though, she looked scared.
I growled. "What's going on?" Did they already have enough votes to eradicate Mason and me from the crown? I knew Brent had pull with several alphas, but I didn't think it could happen that quickly.
"No, they're being attacked ... slaughtered really." Kassie took a deep breath. "He's asked for help.”
"You expect us to want to walk in and help him after everything he just did?" Mason's body was stiff.
"Of course we are. They are our people." It's strange that right after our meeting, something like that would happen. "It's not their fault he's an opportunistic ass."
"You're right. Dammit." Mason frowned.
"That's what I figured you'd say. You always gotta go running off into danger." Kassie huffed, but there was relief in her eyes. She cared about our people as much as we did. "Tommy is already pulling the car around. Mona, Ella, and Louis are already at the elevator."
"We'll stay another night after all." I picked up the duffle bag and ran out the door. Might as well stay. They were going to charge us for the night anyway.
Kassie and Mason walked quickly behind me and caught up when I met with the rest of our group.
"I'll protect everyone except for Brent." Ella narrowed her eyes as she wrinkled her nose like she’d smelled something disgusting. "That asshole deserves to get hurt."
The elevator dinged, and the six of us entered it.
"I'm with Ella on this one." Mason chuckled.
"You both don't mean it." They were full of shit. They may not like him, but they would never let one of our own get injured. If he was calling us, that must mean he was singing a different tune.
"Let us have our moment," Ella grumbled as Louis shook his head with a small grin.
The door opened up when we got to the bottom floor, and Kassie hurried off to check the lobby. "Come on." She waved us on, letting us know the room was clear of visible threats.
"I know I haven’t earned your trust yet, but do you think this could be a setup?" Louis followed closely behind us, and his tone was a little on edge. "This could be a trap."
“He’s right.” Mason stopped in his tracks.
"It's not." Mona frowned. "We had someone we trust run by and check it out before we alerted Elena and Mason."
"Wait." That wasn't necessarily a good thing. "How long has this attack been going on?"
"Only about thirty minutes." Mona waved her hands as she pointed to our Suburban pulled in front. "Now let's go. It'll take about that same amount of time to get there."
We all climbed into the vehicle, and Tommy took off as soon as the back door shut.
We turned off the main road onto a small gravel driveway. The vehicle bounced, jostling us from side to side.
"Where the hell are we going?" Ella cried in the backseat. "These two," she said as she pointed to Louis on one side and Mona on the other, "are not graceful and keep falling all over me. The next thing I know, we're going to hear a banjo."
"It's not a movie." Mason chuckled as he grabbed his armrests, preventing him from being jostled as bad as her.
The trees broke apart ahead of us and soon it opened up to a large subdivision. It reminded me of James's pack, but the houses were bigger, and there were more of them.
The yards had to be close to an acre apart, and there were vampires everywhere. It was a huge fight, and there were even a few dead bodies that littered the ground.
"Oh, dear God." I unlocked my door and jumped out. "It's a massacre."
As I began to run toward an older shifter who had a vampire on top of her, a hand grabbed my wrist, jerking me backward.
I can't lose you. Please, please stay near me. Mason's eyes pleaded with me.
I had to do something or he'd be too distracted and get hurt himself. Fine, but we’ve got to hurry.
Not wanting to waste any additional time, I shifted to my wolf. When I got close, I saw that the vampire had his hands around her neck, getting ready to strangle her. I growled and jumped on top of him, clamping my teeth around his throat, and ripped away, tearing it out.
Something hissed, and I turned around to face another vampire who had its sights set on me. He was about to attack when Mason appeared in his wolf form and steamrolled the guy at least ten feet away from me.
While Mason took care of him, I scanned the area, looking for anything that stood out to me.
A sandy-haired wolf ran in my direction and stared into my eyes.
It had to be Brent. He whined and nodded in the direction of a house that was three houses over.
If he thought I would blindly follow him, he was stupid. It could be a set up even though I doubted Brent would allow his pack to be killed off like this. I think this is Brent. He wants me to follow him. I linked both with my guards and Mason.
Whoa. Did you just give us a heads up about you doing something that could be dangerous? Kassie sounded impressed.
Don't make a big deal out of it or she won't keep doing it. Mona chastised as if she wasn't in a huge fight right now. She jumped on the back of a vampire who was fighting another shifter and clamped on to his arm, dragging him off.
The shifter was then able to get off the ground and start fighting again.
Come on. Mason ran up next to me, and we followed after Brent, running to the house he had indicated.
When we came within fifty feet, I heard low moaning and whimpering.
It sounded as if someone was in incredible pain. I rushed over and found a pregnant shifter lying on the ground, clutching her unborn child within her abdomen.
Someone is hurt. I called out to the bond.
There are a lot of people hurt right now, Elena. Ella's tone was full of annoyance. Being a little more specific might bode well for us all.
Stop being a smartass right now. Mason jogged over to the woman and sniffed her. She's got internal bleeding.
We need to help her. If we didn't help her, both she and the baby could die.
If we don't take care of the vampires, then no one here is going to last long. Kassie's voice was raspy and low.
She was right. It's not like we could take care of her now. Go, I'll stay here and protect her.
I don't want to leave you. Mason was torn.
The sooner we kill the vampires, the quicker we can leave and get help for this mother.
No one is over here now. I walked over to the woman and smelled her again. She had Brent's musky scent on her.
He trotted over again, and before it hit me, he bowed his head. I'm sorry I doubted you, My Queen. Please, we've got to help my mate.
Right now, we need to get rid of the vampires and get your healer. I stared into his eyes and took a step forward. Go help the others, and I'll stay with her.
He nodded his head. Soon, both he and Mason were heading to help the others. I sat next to her, keeping my eyes open and listening for anything that sounded out of place.
All I could do was listen to her faint breathing and the sounds of fighting less than fifty yards away. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, but when I opened them, there was a huge, muscular vampire right in front of me.
"I've been waiting for you to show up." He shook with laughter. He had a scar that started right above his eyebrow and ended at the top of his upper lip.
I stood on all four legs and growled.
"Don't worry.” The vampire waggled his eyebrows at me, and his black eyes flashed as a menacing grin slowly filled his face. "It's you that I'm interested in." He flashed, and before I could process it, he lifted me over his head. "This might hurt a little." He chuckled at his own joke as he threw me down hard.
My body crashed into the ground, and I heard a popping sound come from my leg. I landed on my right side and felt like I was crushed; the pain was excruciating.
"I thought you'd put up more of a fight than that." The vampire began heading
slowly in my direction again, enjoying the predatory side of himself.
Using every ounce of energy in my body, I stood on all fours and turned to stare him down. I need help. I had a feeling I wasn't going to make it out of this one alive. I refused to let him see how hurt I was though. Showing weakness would make it more fun for him.
On my way. Mason's voice was determined, and he appeared behind the vampire in seconds. His now auburn coat glowing in the dusk.
I hadn’t really seen him as a wolf since he became king, and to see his usual black coat now auburn startled me. He must have been on his way when I got hurt since I wasn't blocking the mate bond. He probably sensed I was in pain.
I needed to act as though I was in more pain than I actually was so the vampire would focus on me. I let my weakness show by holding my broken hind leg in the air. That sick, sadistic bastard’s grin grew even wider. He was so immersed in the hunt that he didn't notice the wolf that was readying to strike at him from behind.
Mason ran right at him, lowering himself to the ground and knocking the vampire’s feet out from under him. The vampire hit the ground hard, landing on his back.
"What the ..." The words were a hiss as the guy glanced behind him and locked eyes with my mate.
A loud growl was Mason’s response.
The vampire jumped to his feet and narrowed his eyes. "This makes my job easier with you both being here." He flashed and reached for Mason's neck.
Just as he was about to close his hand, Mason jerked back and clamped down on his hand.
"Shit." The vampire tried slinging Mason off, but all it did was make Mason clamp down even harder.
I had to do something now. I took a deep breath, determined to work through the pain. I took off running and almost stumbled at first, but soon began to limp, making it somewhat bearable. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to jump, so I did the only thing I knew to do. I bit into his leg.
"Agh, you bitch!" The vampire glanced behind him and began kicking the leg my teeth were sunk into.
I wanted to whimper because he was forcing some weight on my injury. However, I held it back. No matter what he did, I had to keep a firm hold.
