The Chosen Series Box Set: Books 1 - 3

by Charlene Hartnady

  “Just Zane.” He tried not to growl. “I’m not color blind.” Or an idiot. Did the human think that vampires couldn’t tell different colors apart? He knew the female knew what he was since she’d started shrieking in excitement the moment he’d set foot in the store. That was up until he’d growled at her, at which point her screams had become shrieks of terror until Ross had managed to calm her down.

  Her eyes widened and he worked harder to keep the scowl from deepening. “No, what I meant was that it’s very costly. Gosh, both the tennis bracelet and—”

  Zane raised a hand and clicked his fingers.

  “My lord.” Ross stuck his head in around the door.

  “My briefcase.”

  Ross returned a minute later and put the case on the counter clicking open the locks. The female sucked in a breath when she caught sight of the stacks of cash that filled the space. “I’ll just wrap these up then and get you your invoice. Are they a gift?” Her smile was wide.

  “Yes.”

  “Whoever she is, she’s one lucky lady that’s for sure.”

  He didn’t know how to react so he stayed silent while she flitted around behind the counter.

  Once back in the SUV, parcel tucked safely beside him, he contemplated heading straight for Tanya’s bookstore and was sorely tempted. After a few beats he decided to head back to the castle instead, at least until this evening. The conversation he needed to have with his female was not one that would go down well in a public place. Least of all her place of business. His Ysnaar didn’t know it yet but she was going to talk to him even if it meant having his guard entertain her friends while he cornered her. And by entertain he meant tie them up if necessary.

  If Tanya tried to run, he’d hold her down until she listened. Pin her under his body if he had to.

  The vehicle pulled away just as a human female plastered herself against the side of his window.

  “Take me with you, King Zane.” She yelled trying to see through the tinted windows.

  “Keep going,” he addressed Ross. This was one of the many reasons he didn’t like coming into town and why unmated males were not permitted here alone. Human females seemed to be greatly attracted to vampires. It was only when his second in command gradually accelerated that the female was forced to let go.

  Once they were out of the town confines, the vehicle picked up speed. His pocket vibrated alerting him to an incoming call.

  He checked the caller ID before answering, “Brant.”

  “Our female is in Sweetwater Hospital. She’s cramping and bleeding. Thankfully she had a human female call Stephany.”

  If Zane’s heartbeat any faster, he was sure it would explode in his chest. “Where are you?” He growled forcing his fingers to release their hold on the phone.

  “Stephany and I just left the castle.”

  He pulled the device away from his ear. “Turn back,” Zane commanded Ross. “Step on it!” he yelled at his second’s confused stare in the rear-view mirror.

  “I should get there ahead of you.” He said to Brant as he put the phone back to his ear.

  “Zane…” It wasn’t lost on him how panicked Brant’s voice sounded. “Last we heard she was unconscious. The female who was with her called an ambulance which arrived as she was calling me. You might even make it to the emergency room before her.”

  “I will be there soon.”

  “They must do all it takes to save her.” Brant seemed to choke on the last words.

  “Don’t jump to conclusions. I am sure that the humans know what they are doing.”

  “She carries vampire young.”

  Zane squeezed his eyes closed for a few seconds. “It is still early. Thinking along these lines will only drive us insane. I will call you when I get to the hospital.”

  “Please tell her”—Brant made a sound of anguish—“Just make sure that you tell her…”

  “Tell her yourself. I’ll call you when I get there.” He ended the call.

  “Head for Sweetwater Hospital. Tanya is in trouble.”

  Ross punched down on the gas. The already speeding vehicle lurched forward. His second spoke while keeping his eyes firmly on the road ahead. “Is it the…”

  “I don’t want to start jumping to conclusions. She had pains and blacked out. Just get us there.”

  Each minute in the back of the speeding vehicle felt like an eternity. Zane tried hard not to picture what might be going on with his female. What if she had started to scent of her pregnancy? If she had…he refused to think along those lines.

  There was so little information on human/vampire pregnancies. All human pregnancies he’d ever known, not that there had been many, had all progressed without incident. Miscarriage, even among their species was rare. On those occasions when it did happen though, the female would suffer terribly. Vampire young, seemed to embed themselves securely into the womb lining. The further along the female, the greater the risk but the lower the chance of it happening.

  Human females were both better at conceiving and birthing healthy young. It never crossed his mind that such a thing would befall his precious Ysnaar. He halted himself from this train of thought…best he take his own advice and stop speculating. Maybe it was something else. Maybe it wasn’t his fetus tearing away from her womb. Causing untold damage to his precious, delicate human.

  He roared, the sound reverberating through the closed space. Griffin turned in his seat. “We will be there within a minute, my lord.” The young vampire’s eyes were filled with anguish and pity.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” he growled. “She is going to make it. Do you hear me? My human is going to pull through this.”

  Griffin swallowed hard, his mouth a thin white line, he nodded.

  Minutes later they pulled up to Sweetwater Hospital. Zane pushed the door open and exited the still moving vehicle. Griffin followed while Ross parked. Automatic doors slid open as he approached the facility at a jog. The acrid scent of harsh cleaning chemicals hit him square on. Though it was the cloying smell of illness, death and decay that caused him to take a momentary, step back.

  Breathing through his mouth, he headed down the hallway shouting Tanya’s name.

  “Can I help you sir?” A tiny human female ran up next to him. “Please, sir.” She reached out and touched his arm.

  “My female is hurt. She was brought here.” He slowed to a brisk walk looking into each of the rooms as he made his way down the long hall.

  “Please stop, sir. I can help you.”

  “Tanya Milan. Where is she?” He tried hard not to growl, knowing how it affected humans.

  “Oh.” Her eye’s widened.

  “Don’t be afraid.”

  “You’re referring to the young lady who was brought in just a few minutes ago. The doctors are busy with her. I need to ask you to come with me please, sir.” She put a hand on his arm, her mouth was a grim line.

  Looking down at where their flesh made contact, he growled low and deep. The female gasped, she snapped her hand away and took a small step back.

  Smart human.

  “Take me to my female and do it now.”

  The female sucked in a deep breath. “I can’t. Like I said earlier, the doctors are busy with her, we don’t want to disturb them while they work. It would be bad for”—she cleared her throat—“your female if we did. Please come with me, I don’t want to have to call security. We’re doing the best that we can. I’ll let them know you are here so that someone can come and talk to you.” Her eyes were wide and pleading.

  Zane could take out their puny human security with one hand tied behind his back. Unfortunately he had to trust that the humans knew what they were doing, that they would save Tanya. The last thing he wanted to do was to place her in harm’s way by disturbing the very people trying to make her well.

  Zane took a deep calming breath. He nodded. “I will do as you say, but someone will come and tell me what is going on. Know that I am not a patient man.”


  “I understand, sir. Follow me.” She led him back down the hall, turning right before they hit the entrance, stopping at one of several glass cubicles. Within the glass confine were seats which he ignored, choosing to pace instead. Griffin and Ross took up standing positions on either side of the entrance.

  “Um, sir.” The human looked up at him. He locked eyes with her. “There is a cafe down the hall,” she gestured in the opposite direction to the one he’d taken earlier. “If you’d like some coffee or…” She let the sentence die as he narrowed his eyes. “I’ll let the doctors know you’re here.”

  As soon as she left, he withdrew his cell phone and dialed Brant.

  “I just pulled up,” Brant said.

  “It stinks, so you will struggle to pick up my scent.” Zane gave him directions to the glass cubicle and hung up.

  Seconds later Brant strode into the small space York, Xavier and Stephany on his tail. “Where is she?” he growled.

  “How is she?” Stephany asked. Zane knew by her red rimmed eyes that the unflappable female had been crying. It unnerved him.

  “I am waiting to hear,” he answered simply.

  “Fuck that,” Brant ground out. “We need to find her right now.” His eyes had a crazed look. Take anger, frustration and an extra dose of fear and Brant was the end result. Zane only hoped that he looked more stable, because he sure as freaking hell didn’t feel of sane mind.

  “They are sending one of their healers to inform us of the situation,” Zane added.

  Brant’s already tense frame roped and bulged as his hands pulled into fisted knots at his side. “These humans are fucked in the head if they think I’ll stand by while my female…” His jaw worked, “I swear to God if anything happens to her…”

  Zane’s chest constricted. His breathing hitched and he fought to control the growing panic. Not a feeling he was used to. “We need to wait, they are busy with her and cannot be disturbed. It could mean”—he took a deep breath—“disaster.”

  “Tanya is a strong female,” Stephany sniffed. “She’ll get through this. I was with her yesterday and she did not scent.”

  “She is a human and unmated at that,” Brant growled. “We fucked up. We didn’t protect our female. If she had been mated then she would have been stronger and there would’ve been less cause for concern. What have we done?”

  Brant looked like he was on the verge of breaking down. If that happened then blood would flow. Human blood.

  Zane grabbed him by the bicep. “We can make it up to her. We can make this right. Let’s wait to hear what the humans have to say before jumping to any conclusions.”

  Brant had initially stiffened at the contact but as Zane spoke, his shoulders slumped.

  He dropped his head. “She has to make it,” he said on a ragged breath. “I need to tell her that…I need to speak to her tell her...” His chest heaved.

  Stephany put an arm around his shoulders.

  “We both do,” Zane said.

  Brant raised his eyes and their gazes locked.

  Someone cleared their throat behind them. They’d been in such deep conversation, so buried in grief, that they hadn’t heard the human approach. The others turned and Zane moved in next to Brant.

  The human male looked to be in his forties. Dark hair greying at the temples, glasses and a white coat. “I’m Doctor Pollard.” He scented of their female. On the bottom hem of his coat was a single drop of blood. Zane struggled to take his eyes off the crimson reminder of how their female lay fighting for her life.

  “Are you friends or family of the patient?”

  “Her name is Tanya and we’re family,” Stephany answered for them.

  “Nurse Michelle mentioned that a man was trying to see the pat…Miss Milan a little earlier, are you”—he cleared his throat—“the father of her baby?” He looked in their general direction.

  “Yes,” both he and Brant answered, both stepping forward.

  The doctor’s eyes widened in momentary surprise before he masked his emotions. “Which one is it gentlemen? Biology dictates that it can’t be both.”

  Brant sucked in a breath between clenched teeth. Zane could feel the tension radiate off the male.

  “Tanya is mated to both of us. We are both responsible for her…condition. Continue,” Zane said somehow managing to keep his voice even.

  “Mated?” The doctor lifted his eyebrows.

  “Understand that Zane and Brant are the vampire kings and that Miss Milan is pregnant with a vampire child.”

  The doctor’s jaw dropped open in an all-out gape. He lifted his hand and then dropped it again, opening and closing his mouth several times before he finally grunted something unintelligible.

  “How is our female? Speak or die.” Brant growled, taking a step towards the human whose already pale complexion turned ghostly. The male took a fumbled step back but didn’t run like Zane expected him to.

  “Stable, but she has lost a lot of blood.” He swallowed hard taking a second step back.

  “Speak.” Zane felt his own patience wearing thin.

  The human flinched.

  “We won’t harm you,” Zane added.

  “Unless our female dies, then all bets are off,” Brant’s voice had dropped several octaves.

  The doctor sucked in a shaky breath. “I assure you that I will do everything in my power to keep Miss Milan alive.”

  Zane nodded. “Continue.”

  The male looked from Brant back to Zane. “The embryo still has a heartbeat, however it is erratic and very faint. I do not believe that Miss Milan will retain the pregnancy. My recommendation would be to remove the fetal sac before it can cause any more damage to her uterus lining. It is my professional opinion that Miss Milan is experiencing a very early stage miscarriage due to there being a problem with the developing embryo. It should have been a simple bleed with the sac coming away like a blood clot within a slightly heavier menstruation…my apologies for the graphics.” He blinked a few times while pushing his glasses back up on his nose. “You are vampires, which must explain the current complications Miss Milan is experiencing.”

  “Our seed tends to embed itself deep into the female’s womb.”

  “Ties in with what we could see on the scan.” He nodded a few times. “I recommend surgery to remove the embryo and to stop the hemorrhaging. Any further blood loss could be fatal. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

  “Do it,” Brant said, his eyes narrowed at Zane.

  “What does Tanya have to say about it?” Zane asked.

  “We are keeping her sedated while attempting to stabilize her enough for the surgical procedure. I don’t want to wait too much longer though and will begin with the preparations for surgery as soon as you sign consent forms.”

  “Tanya would want to decide for herself. Can we have five minutes with her?” Zane asked. They had made this mistake before with dire consequences.

  The doctor shook his head. “I would recommend—”

  “Please. It is not a decision we can make on behalf of our female.”

  Brant breathed out a sigh, he shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. His jaw worked. “Fuck.” He snarled and the doctor stumbled backwards only just managing to keep himself upright by grabbing ahold of York.

  Brant roared, anger and frustration etched in his facial expression. “You’re right,” Brant finally conceded.

  “I don’t recommend this.” The doctor shook his head.

  “Wake her up,” Zane growled. “We want to see our female within the next five minutes.” The doctor nodded and walked away. He shook his head muttering to himself about what idiots vampires were and whether they thought the sun shone out their asses, which Zane really didn’t get. The healer obviously didn’t realize that vampires had excellent hearing.

  “It’s too risky,” Stephany said. “But I agree that Tanya would want to decide.” She ran a hand through her blond hair. “I think that she will choose to keep the child.” She sho
ok her head. “Regardless of the cost. I fear for her life.” Stephany’s eyes glinted with unshed tears.

  “For what it’s worth, I agree with you and Brant. Tanya comes first.” Zane had to swallow down a lump that had formed in his throat. “She means everything to the future of our covens…to us.” He motioned between himself and Brant.

  “As much as I hate risking our female’s life, Tanya would want to decide. We have to respect her. Honor her. We went behind her back once and I refuse to hurt her again.” Brant removed his hands from his pockets together with his cell phone. “I will contact Isla so that we can be in a better position to help Tanya to make the right decision.”

  Zane nodded. Isla was a birthing female, the oldest and most experienced of both the covens. After a minute or two of conversation Brant ended the call, his face grave. Zane noticed how the other male’s hand shook. Adrenaline surged, the taste of fear so strong he had the urge to gag.

  “Isla says that the doctor is right. Our female is showing all the signs of miscarriage.” Brant squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. “Vampire females that scent, confirming a stronger embedding, are normally bedridden for several days after such an ordeal as this. Isla does not think that Tanya can survive.” His voice cracked and he pursed his lips for several long seconds. “Though she did concede that it does happen on the rare occasion that all the signs are there but the pregnancy holds.”

  “We can make the final decision once we have spoken with our female. She may not scent.” Zane said.

  “Make sure that you give her blood. Both of you. She will need it either way. It will give her a fighting chance. Might even help to save the baby.” Tears rolled down Stephany’s face. Zane wanted to grab a hold of her and force her to stop. It was like she had already decided that Tanya would not make it, which was unacceptable.

  “I do not hold much hope for the child. Our female must come first.” Zane growled.

  “Always.” Brant’s eyes narrowed.

  Tanya sucked in a breath. Her throat was dry. Her head ached. A dull throb resonated from her abdomen. She tried to move but something tugged on her arm. When her eyes finally focussed, she saw the cause for her immobility. There was a snake on her arm. It stretched up and up. Gosh, it had a big water filled head. She tried to smile. Funny looking snake thingy.