The Shifter's Catch

by T. S. Ryder

  “We don’t want them to actively attack the humans. They are our food source, and without them we’d all die. But we do need to defend our people. If that means having them turn the human hunters into the hunted and killing them before they have a chance to kill any more of my coven, then so be it.”

  At this, all four of the Council nodded their head slowly and exchanged glances with each other. Hope fluttered in Calissa’s heart. Would they finally agree to deploy the Council Guards after the coven had been being hunted for so long? After so long of being denied the help they so desperately needed?

  “Give us a moment to speak alone,” Arjin said, as he looked around at the other three. “There are… logistics that need to be discussed before a final verdict can officially be reached.”

  With that, Arjin, Angulic, David and Viktor all marched out of the office one by one and disappeared behind the door into the hallway.

  Chapter Nine

  Calissa stared at the door for a long while after the Council had departed, barely daring to breathe.

  “What do you suppose they are talking about out there?” she asked, barely taking the time to spare a glance at Lee. She didn’t want to miss their initial facial expressions when they walked back into her office.

  “It’s hard to say, really,” Lee admitted, though, realizing that only made Calissa all the more anxious, he rested a hand against her shoulder and squeezed it gently.

  “Hey. Look at me,” he said, tilting her chin with a finger, smiling as her eyes finally met his own. “It’ll be OK. This is the most they’ve listened in a long time. I bet you they agree to help.”

  “And if they don’t?” Calissa asked, her eyes wide with anxiety. If they didn’t agree, then the blame for the coven’s deaths would fall directly onto her shoulders as the new coven monarch. The very thought almost made her sick.

  Lee took her hand and pulled her to her feet before wrapping his arms around her and hugging her close. “Well. If they don’t, then we figure something else out,” he said, his telltale confidence shining through. “They are not the only force in this world that can hunt down humans. If need be, we go to others. To werewolves and fairies, witches and the dragons themselves. It’ll be ok.”

  Calissa just nodded and buried her face against his love-marked neck with a shudder. “I just hope it doesn’t have to come to that. So many more vampires will die.”

  “I know… I hope it doesn’t come to that, either,” Lee admitted. “But, if it does, we have other options.”

  Calissa nodded, her arms tightening around Lee for a brief moment, though she immediately jerked away when Viktor and Arjin stepped back into the office. The other two were nowhere to be seen.

  “Where are the others?” Lee asked in surprise, having never remembered a time when the Council members hadn’t appeared as a full unit of four in his life.

  “We told them to head out to the car. We won’t take much longer here.” Viktor said, as he handed over a sealed roll of parchment to Calissa. “My dear Lady Calissa, I’m pleased to finally be giving this to you and the coven of the Northern Isles.”

  With that, he and Arjin both bowed slightly before they departed once more, this time leaving for good.

  Calissa then just stared at the rolled parchment in her hands, holding it as though it might become a living creature and bite her. “What should I do with it?” she asked, wishing Lee was still prince so that he’d have to be the one to open it instead of her.

  “Open it. There is nothing to be afraid of,” Lee encouraged.

  “Nothing to be… Lee! Our entire life, the lives of the vampires under our control – the life of our child! – depends on what is written in this!” she said, appalled by his indifference but empowered by his calm.

  Calm that crumbled away when her words finally sunk in.

  “Our child?” he asked in hollow voice, sounding exactly as shocked as he looked... and Calissa herself felt no better. She didn’t intend to blurt it out this way – but, damn it, she wasn’t sorry because she knew she was right!

  Leaving Lee to deal with the revelation on his own, Calissa took a deep breath, broke open the wax seal and began to read what was written in a soft voice.

  “As decreed by the Lords of the Vampire Council, Arjin, Viktor, Angulic and David,” she paused, glancing up at Lee for moral support before continuing, “We hereby grant permissions to the Guards of the Lords of the Vampire Council to dispatch to the Northern Isles effective immediately. Once there, they are to defend the coven members of the Northern Isles Coven to the death, and shall attack any suspicious humans they come across, especially if these humans—Lee! Lee, they’re sending help!” Calissa all but sang as she jumped up from her desk and launched herself into Lee’s arms.

  As if expecting her reaction, Lee swept Calissa up off of her feet and spun her around with a laugh that filled the room with a blissful warmth. His lips met hers in an adoring kiss just before he set her back down on her feet.

  “How long have you known?” he asked, and Calissa, swept away by the good news, found herself baffled by the question. “Lee... I just found out,” she replied, giving him an odd look, and he laughed.

  “About the baby!” he exclaimed, grinning wildly, and she couldn’t help laughing with him. “Not too long,” she told him, smiling, “I just couldn’t find the right moment to tell you.”

  “Well, I can’t think of a better moment than this,” Lee chuckled and kissed her again. “I’m so proud of you!” he told her as their lips parted again, resting his forehead against hers. “I knew you could do it. I knew you could convince them!”

  Calissa giggled, a blush faint on her pale cheeks. “I didn’t do it alone, you know. I had your help.”

  “I didn’t do anything!” Lee protested. “I just stood here. You’re the one who did this. You should be proud of yourself. I know I’m proud of you,” he whispered, gently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

  “You know, Calissa… I have a question for you,” Lee said suddenly. An intense fire that took Calissa’s breath away had filled his gaze when she met his eyes.

  “Yes? What is it?”

  Smiling, Lee took her hand in his own and dropped down to one knee, his eyes never leaving hers. “I know it’s late, and we’ve already tried this once before… but I truly love you. I love you more than I love life itself,” he said softly, his lips pressing kisses against her knuckles.

  “Wh… What are you saying?”

  Lee smiled up at her, his very heart in his eyes. “Calissa, will you marry me? Will you make me the happiest creature in this world by becoming my mate?”

  For a moment, it looked as though Calissa was about to cry, but then she threw her arms around him, effectively knocking them both over onto the floor. “Of course!”

  With that, Calissa kissed him deeply, and her heart fluttered happily against her ribs. The sense of despair and frustration she’d been harboring in her very soul for so long had finally lifted, and for once, everything felt as though it’d be ok.

  Epilogue

  Their wedding was set on the night of the full moon in the middle of September, and Calissa couldn’t have been happier. Lee had allowed her to go all out with this wedding, ordering thousands of crimson and black rose petals to decorate the backyard of the manor along with thousands upon thousands of tea lights that bathed the yard in flickering light.

  Her wedding dress weighed a ton. It was handcrafted black lace with a train almost as long as she was tall, and thanks to her rapidly growing baby-bump, a little tight in the waist.

  She absolutely adored it.

  Yet, even if she hadn’t had all that, even if she’d only had her normal clothes and the middle of a summer day, her wedding day would have felt perfect.

  “Are you almost ready, Lady Calissa?” Viktor asked her, as he offered his arm to her, a small smile on his pale lips. He’d offered to escort her personally down the aisle on her wedding night since the Council Guard had uncove
red a plot by the humans to destroy the Council itself. It seemed that humans were an even bigger problem than Calissa and Lee had originally thought.

  Smiling, she nodded her head and looped her arm delicately through his, not wanting to catch the lace of her long-sleeved dress on the cufflink buttons of Viktor’s suit.

  He nodded at the pair of younglings to open the backdoors to the yard. Music started playing with the visual cue of the doors and a hush fell over the vampires in attendance as they all got to their feet and turned to look at her as she began the long, slow walk down the aisle.

  She told herself not to look at the end, to focus on getting to the altar before she took her first glance at Lee, but the second the altar was in view she couldn’t help herself.

  Lee stole the very breath from her lungs the second her eyes found him. He was handsome, dressed in a simple black suit with a long, flowing set of velvet robes around his shoulders. His eyes were all for her, and a tender smile was on his face, so different from the cocky, playful attitude he showed everyone else.

  Time seemed to both slow down and speed up as the music ended and she stepped up onto the altar beside him.

  “You look beautiful, my princess,” he whispered, reaching out a hand for her to take before they faced the crowd and the Council.

  “And you look dashing, my prince,” she whispered in return, just as Arjin sliced a long, shallow gash along first her wrist and then Lee’s.

  “Under this full moon, on the 13th day of September, Lee Dameron and Calissa Gerber have chosen to join together as a blood bound pair. The Council has recognized and approved of this joining personally, and wish the couple the happiest of lives for the centuries to come.”

  With that, Lee pulled Calissa into his arms in a rough hug and pressed a kiss to her lips full of all the things he felt for her. Love. Affection. Adoration. Lust.

  Calissa couldn’t help but shed a few tears of genuine happiness. If this was how life was supposed to be, she’d gladly live it. After all, she had a new mate to look after, a child born out of their love to raise with him, and a coven to run. With the Council on her side, and the threat of the humans eradicated, nothing was about to stand in her way.

  *****

  THE END

  The Vampire Prince's Bride

  Description

  A BBW with a secret PLUS a vampire general who needs human blood PLUS a shifter army out to kill!

  Vampire general Darius isn’t looking for love or romance. He’s looking for a promotion. And for that, he needs a human wife and a baby. Just one look at Cleo’s curves and he knows she can give him what he needs. The thought of another man touching her makes him want to kill.

  Cleo has always been strong, always in charge of her own destiny. But what Darius doesn’t know is that she isn’t as invulnerable as she seems. She keeps her secrets just as he keeps his. They made a deal. Why should they be concerned with each other's intimate lives?

  But Darius and Cleo are forced to confront their worst fears when Darius is sent to fight a group of rebel shifters that may just get him killed. Violence is a vampire’s domain. But can he survive this?

  As feelings deepen and danger grows ever closer, Cleo and Darius will have to face hard truths–and decide if ambition is really worth their lives, or if love is worthy of sacrifice.

  Chapter One – Darius

  A picture of Iosif hung over the mantle in Darius's study. The king had ruled all the lands from the Black Sea to the Carpathian Mountain range to the Danube River for almost two thousand years now and was a vampire of great strength and pride. This study had once belonged to his father and Darius had sat on the floor and stared at wonder at the king's picture ever since he was a young boy.

  Hearing about the king's great feats against the shifters, who used to run rampant and murder recklessly, had always made his heart swell with pride. He had determined from a young age that he would be as great as the king, one day wearing the crown on his own head. As he grew up, he realized that his goals required a lot of hard work, but Darius was nothing if not determined.

  "There have been reports of wolves here and here," he said, pointing to the map spread out on his desk. "Three dozen sheep were killed and a shepherdess has disappeared only a dozen leagues from here."

  His best friend and second-in-command, Gordon, frowned. "You think it's the Rebeluna?"

  Darius grimaced as he considered. The Rebeluna was a self-proclaimed rebel group that resisted the vampire king in any way possible. Shifters of various clans gathered and were responsible for more vampire deaths than any other group in the past decade. Since they assassinated the last colonel charged with finding them, the king had turned the investigation over to Darius.

  "No," he decided. "The Rebeluna are organized, efficient. These are minor inconveniences, more likely wolves who consider themselves rebels but don't have the courage to actually commit to open rebellion."

  "Then why bring them up?"

  Darius straightened and grinned. "They're exactly the type that the Rebeluna will recruit for cannon fodder. Send a couple of men to investigate. If humans think that we're allowing shifters to steal them away with no consequences, it might stir up unrest. Find the shepherdess, if nothing else."

  "Am I interrupting?"

  The cool, confident voice made him turn to the door. His twenty-year-old human wife of four months, Cleo, stood in the doorway. Darius smiled at her. Iosif and his own human mate had had no children of their own and had made it clear that the vampire they chose to replace Iosif had to prove he had good relations with humans. The best way to do that was to marry one, and so he had.

  "Darius. Gordon." Cleo strode in, her shoulders back, her head held high, exuding an air of confidence about her.

  She had been Darius' choice wife for two reasons. One, she was beautiful. Bronzed skin, long curly hair, stunning black eyes. When Darius first chose her, Gordon had questioned whether he really wanted somebody as 'robust' as her. She was all curves and softness, nothing angular or sharp about her–except her piercing gaze.

  Which brought him to his second reason for choosing her. She made no pretenses about what she wanted – a husband who could give her all the luxury and power she desired. She wanted to be queen as much as he wanted to be king, and she would do anything necessary to ensure that happened.

  Having a woman like that by his side only heightened his possibilities. She was clever, level-headed, and he had never seen her act based solely on emotion – exactly what he was looking for in a wife.

  "You didn't come to bed last night, Darius." Cleo walked into the room, her black eyes never leaving his face. "I bought a new… dress that I wanted to show you."

  The colonel could imagine what she would look like in the 'dress' and swallowed hard. Heat curled in his lower belly.

  Gordon cleared his throat. "My lord, if you want some privacy—"

  Darius waved his hand at his friend, an annoyed expression on his face. "As much as I would like to ravish my wife on every surface available in this room, I don't have the time."

  "More news on the Rebeluna?"

  "A small envoy of vampires were attacked yesterday evening. It's the Rebeluna's style, but there are many other reports of shifters that I have to have investigated."

  Cleo nodded. "What envoy did they attack yesterday?"

  "Lord Virgil's taxes. He still insists on delivering them in gold every year. Claims it's safer."

  Cleo snorted. "Maybe he'll start using a check or e-transfer now."

  "Maybe. And maybe I should have seen it coming. Virgil's so stuck in the past that he's an easy target for the shifters. They pretended to be a roadblock and shot the tires of his Hummer. They took the gold but didn't stick around to kill anybody."

  Gordon coughed, drawing attention to himself. "We think they are gathering funds for a larger-scale attack."

  The vampire didn't look at Cleo. But then, Gordon had never liked the human. He always thought that Darius deserved
someone 'better'. The problem was he thought 'better' meant thinner and more emotional, worshiping the ground Darius walked on. He didn't want that.

  He didn't want love.

  "They could be collecting funds to bribe the lower-ranked vampires," Cleo suggested. "Or to donate money to the outlying human settlements. Turn them to the shifter cause."

  "It wouldn't be the first time," Darius agreed.

  "I'm having tea with a few of the other wives today. I'll discuss an outreach program to bolster vampire relations with the outliers. I know that the recent earthquakes have caused some flooding. I'll be sure to increase aid to the areas affected."

  Darius nodded, smiling at his wife. She didn't think in terms of battles and conquest, but rather how kindness could change the tide of wars. A valuable ally. In this seemingly unending war between vampires and shifters, humans were the key figures. They were vital to vampire survival, and not just because vampires required human blood to sustain themselves.

  The common assumption that humans could turn into vampires was wrong. It was true that the humans who lived among vampires and were regularly fed from took on vampiric traits: their aging slowed to the point where they hardly aged at all. They also grew stronger, faster, and developed a taste for blood. But they remained human. Vampires were born vampires – and usually males at that. Without human wives like Cleo, they would be extinct within three generations.

  "What are you grinning at?" Cleo narrowed her eyes at him.

  "I was just remembering how we met." His voice turned low and husky. "And how I knew instantly that you were the woman to be my bride."

  Cleo smirked back at him. Both of them ignored Gordon rolling his eyes.

  Their first meeting was indicative of their whole relationship. There had been no romance. He had been patrolling his lands with Gordon and half a dozen sergeants. They stopped at a station in the closest city to refuel their motorcycles. Normally humans looked at them with awe, but Darius had noticed Cleo leaning against the building, gazing at the vampires as though she was measuring them up and finding them lacking.