Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
“Eat something, Spitfire. No point planning massive massacres of vampires if you can’t stand on your own feet,” Brax said quietly, and I grimaced. It was true. I leaned forward and filled my mouth with food, chewing slowly, looking down at Zale.
He clutched my shirt as if he was making sure I was still there, and I curled him in tighter. Enzi was awake, cooing at Brax, her eyes wide and wise.
“Do you think Tabby was right? That Enzi has some other lineage in her?”
Brax shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve only got wolf in mine.”
“But how could my family have anything else but human?”
“We’ll find out, Spitfire.” He tried to reassure me, but I felt the unease in him, the mistrust of Tabby and her theories. I put my hand on his thigh and gave it a light squeeze.
“I won’t let her hurt them, Brax. I won’t let anyone. We can trust her,” I said, and he nodded.
“I trust you,” he whispered, and that was as good as I was going to get, so I’d take it.
The initiate wolves finished serving all the food that was already being demolished, then sat down with the rest of the pack. The humans sat at the end of the table closest to us, and it felt complete.
Seeing them all smiling and happy, knowing we had created this for them.
We had brought in humans from all of the villages who were being punished for not following my father. We had rescued the ones left over once he was gone. We had saved the wolves from the harsh winter and Adrenna’s magic.
We had done all of that, and I didn’t understand what fate’s plan was if that wasn’t enough to keep the happiness.
“Can we talk to Silas? Can we organize a meeting? On the mountain again if we have to,” I said, but Derik shook his head, finishing his mouthful before answering.
“Silas has turned his back on the witches. By orchestrating all of this, letting Adrenna out, he’s manipulating the balance. The witches won’t welcome him to the mountain anymore, which he will know and refuse to go.”
“Can he do that? I was under the impression that the witches couldn’t be denied like that. Aren’t they the power this realm rests on?” I asked, not understanding how Silas could just decide not to listen, and why nobody had told me that was even an option.
“He’s been alive as long as the witches. He was one of the first vampires, part of the first family, and he has made sure that everyone knows how strong that makes him.
I didn’t think it was possible to go against them, and if we tried it, I’m sure we’d pay the price, but if there was anything that had a chance of it? I would assume it is Silas,” Derik explained.
I huffed. “And are they going to do anything about him? To help us take him out?”
“We’re not sure. Tabby thinks he has been clever and made sure everyone else does his dirty work so that his hands stay clean, and they have nothing to interfere over.”
“He let Adrenna out.”
“No. Your father said the word. Adrenna attacked. Elias took the sacrifices. Your brother took Zale. Silas–according to their archaic maintenance of the balance–is not at fault,” Derik said, his voice hard and filled with the same anger that pulsed in every heavy beat of my heart.
He was going to get away with everything?
“So we meet with him, find out why he’s doing this.”
“He won’t respond to any forms of communication.”
“So he’s purposely letting us wonder.”
“Seems so,” Derik chewed slowly, apparently hating that idea as much as I did. It was so frustrating that Silas could do whatever he wanted and destroy everything just to sate his own power-hungry future. I couldn’t let that happen.
“We won’t let that happen. Silas won’t get what he wants out of this or us,” Kai interrupted my thoughts, and I tried to believe what he said, but it was hard to when I was faced with everything I could lose.
I’d never had that much before, and now that I had, I didn’t want to let it go.
“If he’s powerful enough to go against the witches, then how are we meant to do anything to stop him?” I whispered. Derik grabbed my hand in his and kissed the top.
“We’ll stop him. He is one vampire; we are a pack. Our strength is together; he doesn’t understand that.”
“One vampire? He’s got every vampire.”
“No. Not how it works, beautiful. The vampires have a hive mind, kind of like the pack link, except we can feel when our pack is unhappy with our decisions, and that affects our strength and how well we can carry out tasks related to those decisions. The vampires don’t have a choice. The strongest vampire controls the hive mind. What he wants, is what every vampire wants; there is no changing it until the next vampire takes over and infiltrates their hive mind with the next direction for their kind,” Derik explained.
I frowned, trying to take in the information.
“So… If we kill Silas, then his need for power and to kill us could go with him? The next vampire could change the course?”
Derik nodded, and I let out a relieved breath. That meant we had a chance.
If we got rid of Silas, then the next vampire that was strong enough could agree on a peaceful resolution, one where we are all happy. Or, they could be just as messed up, and we’d have to go through all of this again.
“I’m going to go feed the twins and put them down for the night,” I excused myself, standing up.
“I’ll bring her,” Derik said, standing with me and moving to take Enzi off Brax.
I gave Brax and Kai a lingering kiss before Derik and I left the room together, walking close. The twins were both awake, cooing in our arms. Zale and Enzi’s shadows were moving around them, silent and playing.
I smiled at them and brushed mine against theirs, which filled them with comfort.
“I wish I could see them, the shadows,” Derik said.
I shrugged. “I wish I could turn into a wolf and run with you,” I said.
He smiled back. “Touch?.”
“I thought when I turned that I would be able to, but I guess I should have assumed I’d be more like Cain. We both have the magic in our veins,” I said, and Derik nodded.
“We had considered it, the council had. I don’t care what you become, wolf or not, human or not, as long as you’re alive,” Derik said. His warmth was so intense, filling me with the kind of love I had only ever read about.
It was powerful and pushed the other feelings through me, ones that I wanted to explore with him privately, but we had to stay with the twins.
“This heat will be intense, your first one as a wolf.”
“I wish I could enjoy it as much as I wanted to,” I sulked as we turned into the nursery.
I sank onto the rocking chair with Zale on me but swapped him for Enzi. He never fed first, turned his head away, and refused until Enzi had fed. It was the purest kind of love between them, and feeling it in me every day was everything.
“You will.”
“No, not if Silas isn’t dealt with. What if that’s what he is waiting for?”
“Ease your worries, mate. If Silas is stupid enough to get between wolves in heat, then it’ll be his mistake. The heat gives us pure power, pure adrenaline. We will be strong, erratic, and if he does decide to use the heat thinking it will give him an advantage, he will meet our females and how savage they are when they are not sated.” Derik smirked.
I fed Enzi, brushing the small wisps of her hair before kissing her forehead. I thought back on Taylor in the heat when she was infuriated with the lack of sating and ready to rip heads off. It brought a smirk to my lips. Maybe Derik had a point.
Derik smiled and then looked down at Zale before he met my gaze.
“I would like to see you swollen with my children too,” he whispered. His vulnerability in the admission made me hide my wide eyes. Memories of pain and fear flashed in me, and I swallowed, trying to convince myself that it was fine, it wouldn’t be like that this time.
“I…I hadn’t considered more,” I admitted, and he nodded.
“I know. And for now, I am content; this is enough. Zale and Enzi are perfect. But is it something you would be open to?”
Would I?
It was hard to think about. The pain, the pregnancy had been months of being uncomfortable, and the fear of everything going wrong still haunted me. And then Zale had been taken.
It had gutted me, and having more targets to break me wasn’t appealing, but then when I stared down at Enzi and her beautiful face, slowly falling asleep as she fed like she always did, my heart constricted.
I loved them so damn much; how could I not consider having more? Especially ones with Derik’s flawless skin, Kai’s electric eyes? I wanted that too.
“I’m open to it. Once Silas is dealt with,” I said, and Derik let out a relieved breath that made me smile up at him. He leaned down to me, kissing me, his lips on mine sparking that light inside me that I could never resist.
But my children were already perfecting the art of cockblocking, and Enzi stopped feeding, wriggling. Derik didn’t mind, swapping her with Zale. I fed him while Derik tapped the wind out of Enzi.
It was a smooth transition, and Derik was probably the most natural with them. He knew what they needed and had learned their cues fast.
Of course, Zale was harder to read since he was always tuning into Enzi too, but we were all having to learn about him. The chance had been stolen from us so early on. Remembering it had my heart cracking.
“He’s safe. He’s here with us now, they both are,” Derik reassured softly, and I nodded.
“I know,” I breathed, leaning back in the seat and closing my eyes for a second. I was so tired, not physically but mentally. All the stress and worry were so heavy to wear all the damn time.
“I just want this over with. I want to deal with Silas, and I want us safe,” I said.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?