by Lia Davis
"Who was she?" someone shouted. I would've bet my throne it was Aunt Sissy.
"Trinity Sanders," I said firmly.
The room erupted in shouts. The wolves yelled at the vampires, the vampires yelled at me. My father and Kane both stood.
"Silence!" my dad shouted. The wolves complied, albeit a bit slowly.
The vampires continued to yell at me.
Kane joined me in front of the table. "Enough." His voice thundered through the room. I was pretty sure he'd done that power thing, giving them a magical push so they'd shut up.
When things quieted down again, I said, "There was no mistaking her. I suspected it was her before she took the mask off. Unless she's got an identical twin, your new Queen murdered her own subjects this morning." I made a split-second decision to tell them the most chilling part. "And she did it with a smile on her face."
The room erupted again. Dad and Kane gave them a moment to vent. Dad held up his hands and they quieted again, even the vampires. "There you have it. We have a rogue vampire leader, a murderous psychopath. What are we going to do about it?"
Both councils had sat through the entire thing without a word. When my father asked his question, one of The Blood councilmen stood.
"Klaus. One of the oldest vampires alive. Traditionalist," Kane whispered to me.
He looked like he was in his thirties. Klaus narrowed his gaze on me. His accent sounded German. "How are we to believe you speak the truth? After Trinity's unsanctioned attack on your pack, you'd make up anything to undermine her."
My father opened his mouth angrily, but I put my hand on his arm, then addressed the vampire. "Sir, with all due respect, we don't need permission to undermine her. She broke the treaty, and by all rights, we could find her and take her out for her crime. I have no reason to make this up. And you said yourself it was unsanctioned. If she'd break the treaty without your permission, what else will she do?"
He squinted at me, considering. With a nod, he sat down. One of the wolves stood. "What are you vampires going to do to deal with this woman? It sounds like she's deranged!"
"We can't just get rid of her," a female vampire said. "It doesn't work that way."
"Summer. She's on our side," Kane said. "But she's right. They don't have the authority to remove the Queen."
"Then how does it work?" someone in the crowd yelled.
My dad held up his hands again. "Let the councils deliberate. Don't help. If we keep having call-outs we’ll make this a closed meeting."
Another vampire on the council stood. "We can't depose Trinity on the word of a wolf. We just can't."
"Why not?" I asked.
He looked at me, taken aback. "Because you're not to be trusted," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I haven't betrayed anyone. I haven't attacked anyone. Trinity has. We planned on speaking to you about her actions even before we discovered she was leading the Red Night. She isn't fit to lead." My temper rose, making my tone lethal.
Klaus spoke again. "The Blood will vote on our course of action."
They drew into a circle and deliberated for several minutes. While they did, the wolves did the same. Even with my advanced hearing, I couldn't make any of their words.
After several long minutes the vampires broke from their tight circle and Klaus stood. "At this time, we choose to leave her in place."
I had to stop my jaw from dropping. "How can you do that?"
"We have no hard proof. We cannot explain to Lilith and Lucifer that we imprisoned their appointed heir on the word of a lycan—not even the lycan princess," Summer said. She gave me a sad smile, telling me she was on our side, but her hands were tied. "Whatever our personal feelings about the matter, we must do as our laws say." She shot Klaus a hard look.
She didn’t appear to care for the man. That made two of us.
"If it boils down to it, Trinity broke the treaty, without the backing of her council," Kane said. "That makes her a war criminal by our own laws. The lycans have the right to hunt her down and remove her head, by decree of the treaty she broke." He stared the council down, but none of them flinched or gave an inch.
The leader of the lycan council stood. "If you will not punish her yourselves, we will do it for you. I don’t see how we can reach another treaty if you will not concede this point." She sat down after saying her piece.
All eyes swung back to The Blood. They leaned in to one another and murmured, too softly for anyone to hear. Summer stood again. "Until Lilith provides us with a suitable alternative, we must follow Trinity. I’m sorry, this is our final word. If you cannot abide by it, we understand that you may have to do what you feel is right."
She stared for several ticks at Kane when she said that.
He nodded once. "Fine. Council adjourned."
My dad turned to him, an amused look on his face. "I guess we’re adjourned, then."
3
Jillian
The vampires and wolves that had watched the proceedings milled about for a while. I was pleasantly surprised to see them conversing with each other, even though there was a lot of tension between the two races. At least they were in the same room without wanting to rip each other apart.
Kane stepped down to talk to Summer, and I followed.
"They need to just take her out," Summer hissed. "It’s the only way."
"I thought that was what you were implying," I said softly. "I’m happy to do it."
Kane blew out a sharp breath. "We’ll see."
We’ll see, my ass. "The Blood can go fuck itself," I hissed at him. "Sorry, Summer."
She shrugged. "They’re being assholes. Lilith didn’t know how fucked up Trinity was, and she’s in Hell. She can hardly send a text with instructions."
Kane nodded. "I don’t know if she’ll have time or opportunity to check in on us from there."
"Why did she have to go?" I asked.
"Lucifer wanted her to come home. That’s all they’d tell us," Summer said.
I blew out a sigh of frustration. "Well, we won’t ever have peace if we don’t subdue Trinity. At the very least she should be imprisoned. It’ll be our next move. I’m sure she expects it, though."
"Probably," Summer said with a grimace. "It’s what she’d do."
Klaus cleared his throat across the room as he stared pointedly at Summer. She sighed. "I guess I better go. He’s a pain in the ass, but he’s mine."
"They’re together?" I asked Kane as she walked away.
"No, he’s her brother," he said with a grin.
"How old is she?" I yawned and leaned against him.
He snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me close. "I’ve never asked, but I think she’s at least seven hundred."
"Shit," I muttered as I realized I’d never asked how old Kane was. "And you? How old are you?"
If he was like a hundred and thirty, I was going to lose my ever-loving mind.
"Twenty-six," he said with a laugh. "Nothing for you to worry about."
Well, thank goodness for that.
Eventually, everyone left. As the hosting council, we felt like we couldn’t leave until all the attendees did. We agreed to meet my dad at home and stopped in town for take-out before heading back to the house.
At the house, we gathered in living room. I was sandwiched between Quin and Voss on the sofa with box of cashew chicken in one hand and chopsticks in the other. Kane sat across from us in an oversized armchair, observing. I met his stare and he smiled. My heart ached for him. Trinity’s betrayal wasn’t easy on him.
As if knowing where my thoughts had gone, Kane shook his head. I offered him a bite of my chicken and he chuckled, crinkling his nose. Vampires could eat food, but most found it bland and didn’t bother since they didn’t gain sustenance from it.
Dad, on the other hand, was still seething from the meeting. "We have to take her out," he said before stuffing lo mein noodles in his mouth.
Voss fisted his hand over my thigh, his ang
er touching my awareness. "Definitely. I was so pissed in that meeting I nearly blew up. What is wrong with those damn vamps?"
Kane grunted in annoyance. "They’re scared of changing the status quo."
I met Dad’s gaze. "If we take her out, then what?” I swung my head back to Kane. “Will you default as King or will The Blood be forced to choose someone else? What if that vampire is no better than Trinity? Do you know for sure who her followers are? We don’t even know her motives for starting a war."
Kane frowned at my rapid fire of questions. "The Blood is set on their choice to dethrone me because I’m mated to a lycan. However, I think there is a divide among them. They won’t move without Mom’s say. In order for me to get a message to her, I’d have to go through Lucifer. I rather not, because he doesn’t see urgency in anything that doesn’t directly concern him. He’d want me to come to him, as in go to Hell. Once there he’d want me to stay a few days to discuss how I’m to handle the situation. I don’t have time for it."
Sitting forward in his chair, Kane placed his head in his hands, his long black hair falling forward. "I wouldn’t be surprised if Lucifer is blocking all communications to Mom."
Dad shook his head. "Normally, I wouldn’t give a damn who leads the vampires or what they do. But your mating puts us all in a sticky situation."
I frowned as I took a bite of my dinner. Dad was right. As much as we all wanted to take Trinity out, we couldn’t just call her out. "Plus, we’re not sure who she’s working with to gain access to the pack. She knew we were all going to be at the pack hall for the party. Not that is was a huge secret, but she had to have known as soon as we started planning. How else would she be able to get that organized to attack?"
Kane shrugged but it was Quin who said, "She could’ve had a team on standby, ready to go at a moment’s notice."
"True." I set my dinner on the coffee table, no longer hungry. "That makes me wonder just how many teams she has."
Voss pressed his leg into mine. "Can’t be too many, or she’d be ordering more attacks."
Ugh. Nothing was ever easy.
Needing something else to think about, I changed the subject. "Kane, are you hungry?"
"I’m good. We have bagged blood we can fall back on. It’s not as good as…" He looked at my dad.
"Don’t stop on my account," Dad said through a mouthful of chicken. "I’m curious to how it works."
"It’s not as good as straight from the vein," Kane finished, holding my stare.
Umm, maybe that wasn’t the right subject to talk about in front of my dad. "Anyway. Let’s change the subject."
"Why?" Dad asked.
"It’s just not really polite dinner conversation," I said. Quin and Voss stared at me like I’d grown a second head, and Kane was valiantly trying not to laugh.
"Jillian, it’s just blood. It’s how he eats. Don’t be offended," Dad said in a stern voice.
I made a desperate attempt to keep a straight face. "Daddy, I’m begging you, drop it."
He ignored me and faced Kane. "How do you find donors? Are there humans that sacrifice themselves, like in their movies?"
"Dad," I hissed. "They bite their lovers, usually."
My poor daddy. How did he not know that? It was legend among lycan women.
"Is that common knowledge?" he asked with a red face and wide eyes. "You’d think the High Alpha would know that."
"I didn’t," Voss said.
Quin shook his head no as he looked between me and Kane. "Has he? I mean, have you two…"
"That is something we definitely aren’t talking about," I said and pointed to each one of them. "Everyone stop talking and eat."
They listened to me. I’d tried to warn them, but they’d just insisted on talking about it. Now they knew.
After dinner, everyone scattered, probably still embarrassed.
Kane asked if he could use our gym, so Voss took him down to show him around. Quin gave me a shuttered look and followed them downstairs. I trailed behind to find out what his look was about.
Quin
"Hey," Jillian called from behind me. "Hold up."
I paused and waited for her to catch up. The idea that Kane had fed from her hit me a little harder than I expected. Jealousy tightened my chest. I understood the emotion. It was something we all had to deal with. Although, the vampire seemed to have a better hold on it then Voss and I.
"What?" I tried not to let my irritation show, but I failed. I didn’t know why I was angry. I had no right to be. Kane was her true mate just like I was. Same with Voss.
Pushing my emotions away, I glanced at her. My irritation crumbled. Her features were a mix of annoyance, worry, and fear. She studied my face for several moments before crossing her arms. "What’s your deal? Why’d you give me that look?"
Sighing, I motioned for her to go toward my room. "Let’s talk."
I held the door open for her and waited. She brushed by me and scanned my small space. Flutters of butterfly wings moved through my insides. I kept my room neat, so I wasn’t concerned with what Jillian thought about my room. She knew I kept my space clean.
My nerves rattled because the last time she was there was before she acknowledged him as her mate.
"I’ve not been in here in a long time." Her voice was low, and I heard the smile in it before looking at her face.
A soft laugh escaped me, and my heart warmed. "Remember when you used to sneak down here?"
I’d moved in shortly after joining the Sentry training program. We’d spend hours together before her dad or Sissy would come looking for us. When she was small, before she hit her teens, she’d raid my books and nose around in my personal belongings. Nothing was private around her.
"Vividly." She smiled wide at me. "It felt like home, as weird as that sounds."
I understood what she meant.
"Even in my home, being in your space felt right. It still does." She looked around, reading titles on my bookshelf. "So many of these mirror my own. Why?"
"I’ve always been drawn to whatever interests you," I said simply with no pretense or deflecting. "So, I read books I saw you reading."
"You’ve really felt the distance between us the last few years, haven’t you?" She averted her gaze and looked sad.
I nodded my head. No sense in sugar coating it. I’d feared for so long that she’d find a true mate and leave. "When you turned seventeen, shortly after that birthday, I was positive you were my mate. But you gave me absolutely no indication that you recognized the call. I’d suspected it since you were fourteen."
She burst out laughing. "Can you imagine what would’ve happened if you said anything then?"
I shook my head. "They would’ve locked me up. But I wasn’t lusting after you. Not until you were of age. It’s like my body knew it couldn’t have you yet, so I didn’t have those urges."
"How can that be?" she asked, moving away from my bookshelf.
I sat down on the bed and watched her body move. My own reacted to her, hardening, ready to take her. "I have no damn clue. I’m glad it was like that, though. I did some research. It’s documented that mates who meet at a very young age tend to mature sexually at the same time. So it’s possible that until you started feeling stuff like horniness, I didn’t."
"That’s kind of wonderful," she said. "If I understand fated mates correctly, our ancestors choose our mates for us. Maybe they help us wait for each other, too." She walked slowly toward me as she spoke. "Do you lust after me now?"
"Every minute of every day." I wasn’t kidding. If I didn’t get to be with my mate, my wolf was going to combust.
She grabbed the hem of her shirt, dragging it up and exposing her stomach. "You want me?"
My wolf lost his damn mind. I growled, low in my throat, and stood. She was teasing me, and I wouldn’t have it. "You’re mine," I said in a low voice before grabbing her by the hips and jerking her to me.
She gasped, probably surprised by my aggression. I always deferred to
her, but not tonight. Tonight, she would belong to me and only me. I stared down at her lips before claiming them.
My wolf howled with happiness. Even though we’d kissed a few times since we admitted we were mates, this time felt different. The promise of passion flowed around us.
She softened under my hands, so I wrapped my arms around her, holding her tightly against my body. I pushed my erection into her stomach, making her groan. Every fiber of my being hummed with anticipation.
My nerves hit me, overpowering my alpha tendencies. She noticed my hesitation.
"What’s wrong?" Jillian asked me softly. Her hands moved to my neck and she stroked the ends of my hair. "You were hot then went totally cold."
"There’s something you should know." I pressed my forehead to hers, no desire to look her in the eyes when I confessed my secret to her.
"What, you’ve got a wife and kids somewhere?" she asked sarcastically.
I barked out a laugh and lifted my gaze to hers. "No! Sit here on the bed with me."
Once we were comfortable on the bed, facing each other, I continued. "Jillian, you came of age and went a little wild. I know you’ve had flings, and of course I know you’ve slept with Kane and Voss."
"Well, they’re my mates, as much as you are. Are you upset that Kane fed from me?" Her features turned serious. Sadness rippled through our connection.
I loved you first. I pushed the thought away. It did me no good to have a pissing contest. "I’m not upset that you’ve slept with other people. And as far as the vampire…Kane, I shouldn’t be surprised. I mean he’d have to feed somehow, but I hadn’t realized it was a sexual act."
She took my hands in hers. "Kane says feeding gives them as much pleasure as having sex. So I can’t even deal with the idea of him feeding from another person. Does that make me a hypocrite to ask you three to share me?"