The Transformed Box Set: Books 1, 2, 3, 3.5

by Stacy Claflin

  "Daughter, you're obviously with child. I've gone through it twice, and I've watched your sister go through it five times. Not to mention the other Fyrsturae and all of their pregnancies, and all of the other vampires I've seen go through it over the centuries."

  "Don't say anything to anyone," I told her. "I need to tell Cliff first."

  She nodded. "I'll let you do that, but you'd best get hurry up because it won't be long before everyone else figures it out too. It's been a month since he stopped talking to you. I don't know when this happened, but I guarantee you that your middle is going to start growing very soon." My mother's face broke into a smile.

  "You're happy about this?" I exclaimed.

  "I do want to see you with Alrekur, of course. But I can't lie about being thrilled of the creation of the tenth line."

  "Why? A tenth line doesn't stand much of a chance of survival. When they have children, the kids will be of the line of other parents."

  "They can mate amongst themselves to make the line bigger and stronger. Get that look off of your face; we've explained to you already that vampires don't have inbreeding issues. They can also use their blood to create new royal vampires to breed with, and those children would be part of the tenth line. They couldn't be on the throne, of course, but they wouldn't be anyway with you and Alrekur there."

  I glared at her, extremely annoyed with her giddiness. "Do you have any ideas as to how I can get Cliff to talk to me?"

  "Of course, child. Let's go to my sitting room and have some servants fetch him. When he arrives, I'll announce your presence and leave you two alone."

  We went to her sitting room and as I waited for Cliff, my mind was racing. I was beyond nervous about telling him that we were going to have a baby. I hoped he didn't bring Stelena with him. Surely, my mother would throw her out. I was sitting in a part of the room that was hidden from the door, so Cliff wouldn't know that I was there when he arrived.

  I stopped breathing when I heard his voice. "You called for me, your majesty?"

  My mother nodded in his direction. "Please, sit," she said and paused. "There's a very important matter that needs to be discussed."

  "What is it, your highness?"

  She turned to me and motioned for me to come to her. I stood up and walked to her chair.

  Cliff looked up in surprise and his eyes flashed red. He stood up, pounding his fist into his other hand. "Is this some kind of trap?" he demanded. He looked directly at me. "Did you use your mother to call me, knowing that I can't leave without her permission now?" He was so angry that his fangs had actually come out.

  I choked back tears and shook my head.

  "This isn't her doing, Clifford," my mother said. "Sit back down, because the two of you need to talk. You may not leave the room until either she or I give you permission."

  He looked so angry that I expected smoke to come from his ears. He sat down and muttered, "Yes, Queen."

  "I'll be down the hall if you two need me. But I think you'll want to have this conversation private." She rose and left with the servant, closing the door behind them.

  "What do you want?" he demanded, his red eyes narrowed and fangs still visible.

  I swallowed nervously and blinked back tears. "Cliff," I said, my voice wobbly, "I'm so sorry for hurting you. That was the last thing I wanted to do."

  He glared at me with clenched fists. "Yet you continually do. May I go now? Since I need your permission to leave."

  "Your mind hasn't been controlled. You have free will."

  "Of course I do. But I follow the orders of my superiors."

  "Then you should understand why I couldn't tell you about Alrekur. I was ordered not to."

  "That's different!" he spit out.

  "How? I was following orders!"

  "It was different because it involved our relationship. When my mother wanted to send me on week-long errands, I told her I would only go on ones that would take a few hours—because I refused to let her keep us apart." He folded his arms. "When it comes to you, or I should say, when it came to you, I made exceptions. No, I didn't all-out disobey, but I stood up for us, for you. You not only lied to me, you betrayed me. This is why I would like to leave now."

  "Cliff, I have something important to tell you."

  "You're going to marry Alrekur?" he snapped. "I already knew that! I found that out with everyone else in that meeting. You gave me no heads up! I had no idea what I was walking into—and I had to hear it from your father at that!"

  "I'm sorry," I whispered, the tears finally escaping.

  He flew at me and pinned me to the chair. "Do you know how that felt? Do you have any idea what that was like for me?" he yelled in my face.

  I shook my head, tears escaping.

  He went back to his chair as quickly as he'd left it. "I would have much rather heard that from you, in private. I would have rather had a conversation with you so that we could talk it through. Then I would've been prepared for that meeting and we could've faced the madness together. Instead, you hid the truth from me! You purposefully kept me in the dark! I don't know how you could've done this to me." He stared at me, seething.

  "I was afraid you'd react like this. That you'd hate me when you found out about the real prophecy of the Sonnast."

  He furrowed his eyebrows. His eyes, which had almost returned to brown, turned red again. "I wouldn't have held that against you. You can't help the prophecies or the lies your parents allowed us to believe. But, this! Keeping me in the dark, yes, that would cause me to hate you!"

  I felt like I'd been stabbed. "Do you?" I breathed.

  "Hate you?" he asked. "What do you think?"

  "Cliff," I said, looking at my hands, "we're going to have a baby." I looked up at him.

  His eyes had gone back to their normal color, his fangs had retracted, his face was paler than usual, and his eyes were wide. "I beg your pardon?" he whispered.

  "We're having a baby," I repeated and then I took a deep breath, stood up, and walked to him. I sat down on the floor in front of him and put my hands on his knees. "We're starting the tenth line."

  He looked into my eyes with disdain. "Are you sure it's not another first line vampire? Or maybe a common vampire?"

  My mouth dropped open. Before I knew it, I'd slapped him across the face.

  The look of shock on his face was nothing compared to anything I'd ever seen before. "You just hit me!" He grabbed my arm and pulled me to him so that I was less than an inch from his face. He narrowed his eyes. "Don't you ever do that again. This is your only warning."

  "Then don't you accuse me of sleeping with Alrekur! Or anyone else for that matter!"

  He tightened his grip around my arm and then shoved me away, letting go of my arm. "And why shouldn't I?"

  "You really have to ask that?"

  "Yes, actually I do."

  "So now that I gave myself to you, you think that I'm going to go around and do that with everyone I see?" I demanded, glaring back at him. How dare he accuse me of that?

  "Do what you want, I don't care. Sleep with all of the Fyrsturae."

  My mouth fell open again. "You don't mean that."

  I looked deep into his eyes, beyond the anger and spite, and I could see how hurt he was. I sighed, trying to calm myself. "Cliff, I'm so sorry that I hurt you. That was the last thing that I wanted to do. It was like I kept saying right before the meeting, I slept with you because I love you and I wanted to keep you. I didn't know that I'd get pregnant, but now we'll be tied together forever, no matter what. Nobody can take that away from us."

  "You had important information that you kept from me! You acted selfishly."

  I sighed. "You're right; I did. I can't deny that." I had initially gone to him because I was furious at Alrekur for killing Tanner. I had been thinking of nothing but my anger, but once I was in the room with Cliff, I had only been thinking of him. I'd forgotten about everyone else. "I did betray you. You have every right to hate me." I sighed sadly. "You're f
ree to go. I wouldn't blame you if you never looked at me again."

  His face immediately softened and tears glimmered in his eyes. He stood up and wrapped his arms around me, shaking. I could feel the wetness of his tears pooling in my hair. He ran his hands over the back of my head and down the length of my hair.

  "We're really having a baby? You're actually pregnant?" he whispered.

  I nodded my head. "Yes, and it's yours."

  "I'm sorry I accused you of sleeping with them," he said, sighing. "I know that you wouldn't."

  "I wanted to tell you everything. I really did. I'm so sorry."

  He held my chin and moved it so that I was looking into his eyes. They were still filled with tears. "I shouldn't have been angry with you for a whole month. I promised you that I'd never abandon you again and I did exactly that."

  I shook my head. "I had it coming."

  "No. I should've heard you out. I should have trusted you, even though I didn't understand."

  "I don't blame you. Don't get me wrong. I really wanted to talk with you, but I never blamed you."

  "What are we going to do now? Does Alrekur know?"

  "No. I just found out, but my mother says that it won't be long before everyone will be able to tell."

  He sighed. "I won't leave you to tell him yourself. I'll stand by your side."

  "No! He'll probably rip your head off. I'm going to have to do damage control before he goes near you. Perhaps your mother could come with me when I tell him."

  "Alexis! Be nice, please. I know you don't like her, but she is my mother."

  "She's planning the death of my family! You act as if she hasn't done anything wrong. I've overheard her talking about planning a war with the werewolves against us."

  "I still haven't found any proof of that."

  "The only proof you should need is my word," I said, folding my arms.

  "I meant that I haven't found any proof from her. I fully trust in what you've told me, but if I'm going to confront her, then I need something that she can't deny. She can easily dismiss you overhearing a couple of conversations."

  "You probably haven't been looking very hard. You've been too busy avoiding me."

  He sighed. "You look exhausted. Do you need to rest?"

  "Actually, yes. I told my mother that I wanted a nap before she called for you."

  He stood up and extended his hand toward me. "Let me walk you to your room. You need to take care of yourself because the baby will take whatever it needs from you: nutrition, energy, anything."

  I looked at his hand, remembering him extending the same hand to Stelena earlier. "What about Stelena?"

  He looked down. "I'm sorry, Alexis. There's nothing between us, though my mother would like there to be. I only held her hand to upset you. I'm sorry."

  I took his hand and stood up. "You wouldn't have tried to hurt me if you didn't care. I'll take it as a compliment."

  He gave me a sad smile. "Thanks. Can I get you anything? Do you need to eat?"

  "I've been drinking a lot of blood. It's the only thing I can keep down."

  "That's the best thing for you. For both of you. Anything else is fluff."

  "How do you know so much about this?"

  "A lot of vampires come through this castle, and though vampire pregnancies don't happen every day, I have seen my fair share of them."

  We walked out of the room holding hands. My mother appeared from a doorway, smiling. "Oh good, the two of you have made up. Where are you going?"

  "He's walking me to my room so that I can take a nap," I said.

  "Good. We're going to have talk to your father about this soon, but get your rest first."

  Cliff's grip tightened.

  My mother smiled. "Don't look so frightened, my boy. He's going to be pleased as well. A tenth line at long last!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "This is cause for celebration!"

  Cliff and I exchanged worried looks.

  "Can you give us some time to let the news soak in first?" I asked.

  "Of course, my child. We'll wait until tomorrow."

  I groaned. "I had hoped for a little more time than that."

  "We can probably wait to tell Alrekur. But not too long, because he really should know. You understand, of course."

  "If you want to keep the Montgomery's here at the castle, that's probably not the way to go," I said.

  "Your condition is going to be obvious soon enough. It would be best to say something before he figures it out on his own or someone else points it out to him."

  "Well, that's not going to happen in the next day is it? Please, Mother, give us a little bit of time before we go and enrage the most powerful vampire ever born."

  Cliff looked at me. Thanks. When you put it that way, I feel so much better about this.

  I gave him an apologetic look.

  My mother sighed. "As long as we can tell your father tomorrow. We can discuss the best time to share this with Alrekur together."

  "Wonderful," I said. I turned to walk away and pulled Cliff along. "Can you believe her? She's giddy over this!"

  "You have to admit that the creation of the tenth line is the news of the century. Nobody ever expected that to happen. I never would have guessed that you were the tenth Fyrsturae. Your parents put up a very good show for a long time. Everyone believed them for all those centuries."

  "It's hard to believe that they're still on the throne after announcing that they're not even vampires."

  "Not really," Cliff said. "Vampires are very loyal and your parents have been good leaders, taking care of both vampires and humans for centuries. Despite their…indiscretions, everyone still loves them. Aside from that, they won't be on the throne for long. Once the rest of the Fyrsturae have been awakened, Alrekur will reclaim the throne."

  We walked in silence, neither one of us wanting to bring up the fact that Alrekur was supposed to take the throne with me at his side once all ten Fyrsturae were brought together.

  TWELVE

  Cliff and I walked through the castle hand in hand without saying much. We were both taking in the fact that we were not only back together, but expecting a baby.

  "I can't believe we're going to parents," I whispered. "It's so unreal. Not that I should be surprised. Everything over the last several months has been one shock after another."

  He squeezed my hand. "It's certainly a surprise, my princess. But I'm glad that we're in this together."

  I smiled at him. "I wouldn't want to go through this with anyone else. I just can't get over it though. We only did it that one time."

  He shook his head. "I know. But when we've got something as good as what we've got, we can't be surprised."

  "I suppose that's true."

  We looked into each other's eyes for a few moments and then continued walking. We stopped to look out a large picture window overlooking a huge pond with snowcapped mountains behind it.

  "I can't believe this place exists," I breathed. "Humans tear down this stuff to build malls and condos all the time."

  "They can't touch this land. Aside from the fact that it's always crawling with royal vampires, various spells and protection blessings have been placed on the land. It's truly an enchanted forest."

  I sighed. "I hope we can raise our baby here. Though as long as we're together, it doesn't matter."

  Cliff kissed the top of my head. "I know how you feel. It's heaven on earth. As long as we're together, that's all that I need."

  We looked out the window in silence for a while, his arm wrapped around me.

  After a while, there was a gasp from the other end of the room. We both turned around to see Stelena leaning against a chair, hand over her mouth.

  "Stelena!" Cliff exclaimed.

  "I thought—I mean…what's going on here? Your parents said that you were going to court me. You told me that you hated her!"

  I felt like I'd been stabbed. He told her that he hated me? I wasn't surprised that Francine and George had said that C
liff and Stelena were going to court. But she hadn't said that Cliff had been courting her, so that meant that even when he was so angry with me, he didn't court her. I smiled, knowing that he had still loved me even when he had professed to hate me.

  "Stelena," Cliff said. "I'm sorry that my parents have misled you. Alexis and I have loved each other since we were children and we needed some time apart to," he paused thoughtfully, "work things out. I never meant to hurt you. I apologize if I did."

  Her eyes glistened with tears as she stood, staring at Cliff. A tear ran down her face and she turned around and disappeared from sight.

  "I feel terrible," Cliff said. "I never meant to lead her on, but I can see now that I did. I was unaware that my parents had promised that I would date her, Alexis. She's been a friend of our family all of my life. I've never thought of her like that. Nor anyone else for that matter."

  His words twisted like a knife as I thought about the feelings that I'd had for both Tanner and Alrekur. Cliff had been nothing but faithful to me, and I'd had romantic feelings for the both of them as well as for Cliff. I didn't deserve him. What did he see in me, anyway? Why would he want to be with someone who can feel romantically toward just about anyone who walks her way?

  Cliff took my hand and squeezed it. "Are you okay?"

  I couldn't even look at him. "You're such a good person." I tried pulling away. I didn't want to look at him. I didn't deserve to be with him or to have his baby.

  He pulled me into his embrace. "Don't worry about her," he soothed. "I only love you. It's always been you."

  "Cliff, I don't deserve you," I blurted out.

  He grabbed my shoulders so that I couldn't avoid looking him in the eyes. "I know that you've had eyes for another. Tanner's spellbound blood caused you to kiss him. Maybe you think that you chose to have feelings for him, but you didn't. There was a prophecy shortly before you were kidnapped as a child that said you would fall for another. For whatever reason, it was meant to be. Maybe he'll find his way back and help us win the impending war. I don't know. All I know is that you and I are meant for each other. There are two prophecies about who you will marry. It's your choice."