The Change

LORELAI

I went to throw my magic back at Silas, prepared to defend the twins with whatever magic I had left.

But I didn’t need to.

Kai, in his full wolf form, broke through the window and launched at Silas. Kai’s wolf was huge and knocked Silas over before his teeth took a huge chunk out of the Vamp’s neck. Silas screamed, holding his wound, as Kai let out a howl.

His muzzle was covered in blood, and he gave a huff, shoving Silas back.

But Silas was indestructible and came back again. He sunk his teeth into Kai’s hide. I shoved Silas off Kai with my magic, but it was too late. Kai let out a whimper as Silas climbed the wolf, wrapped his arms around him, and squeezed.

I heard the crunch a second before I used my magic and shadows to get Silas off Kai.

Kai slumped to the ground as I went wide-eyed.

“Kai?” I whimpered, going to move forward, but Silas rolled away from my magic and stood up.

“He’ll heal. Slowly. Painfully.” Silas grinned. “If I let him,” he said, then went to Kai’s head. He was passed out. Silas’s hand hovered, threatening, and my magic welled inside me.

I pulled up a strength I didn’t know I had and yanked Silas away from my mates. He was too close to them both. He was between them and me with the twins.

Silas had his neck regrowing, the chunk hurting enough that he was slow. Blood poured down his front, his face sickly, but he kept stepping closer.

“Take another step, Silas, and I will stop you,” Derik’s rough voice said as he walked into the room. He was scowling, sweaty, and had a gash across his chest that was healing.

He stood next to me, grabbing my hand to kiss the back of it like he always did. But his eyes never left Silas.

Silas grinned, rubbing his hands together. “I was wondering when you would show up. I must admit, I’ve been quite looking forward to it,” he said, eyeing Derik.

“You have broken the realm rules. You are sentenced to death. Do you accept the charges?” Derik offered in a scarily calm voice.

Silas laughed, clapping his hands together. “Oh, you are one hell of a politician. Mommy and Daddy taught you well. But you’re not all brains in there, are you?” Silas taunted.

I was so tense I could barely manage an audible breath, but that had me exhaling. I looked up at Derik, whose face was unmoving.

“Do you accept the charges?” he urged.

Silas shook his head slowly. “You know I don’t. And even if I did, I will not accept the punishment that comes with those charges. Are you going to stop me, Achlis? We both know you’re the only one that has a chance at doing it. Want to put it to the test? Grandaddy Achlis taught you about me, didn’t he?”

Derik narrowed his eyes.

“Alpha Achlis told me how to beat you.”

“Dorian Achlis was a bitch for his siren. Just like you are for yours. The same weakness means our fight will end the same as mine did with him,” Silas sneered. But Derik shook his head, removing his hand from mine.

He rolled his shoulders back and glared at Silas. “Last chance, Silas?”

Silas grinned and shook his head. “I know the anger you keep tapered in there. I know the strength you have in there. You let Nikolai be the strongest. You let Braxton be the darkest. And you pretend to have it all together, but we know the truth, don’t we? You’re the darkest strength there is, and that is why this is going to be so much fun,” Silas said.

I swallowed. He saw Derik like I saw Derik. The one behind what he showed the rest of the world. The one that had to control everything to stop the storm from escaping. But Silas was right, that Derik did have a chance at beating him.

“I warned you,” Derik said, then went for Silas. It wasn’t like Brax, who fought with his shadows and fluidity. It wasn’t like Kai, who went straight for the kill. Derik fought with intent. He mirrored Silas, using his body like it was an extension of his will.

It was beautiful.

He fought him, meeting every surge of his body with a clash of his own.

I was so enraptured by the fight, I wasn’t paying enough attention.

I should have been.

A strong arm wrapped around my throat, and I squealed. Another vampire grabbed me, his teeth at my throat. I swallowed and tried to pull my magic from me, but as soon as I tried, my body began to collapse.

I yanked on my shadows, but they stayed around the twins.

Silas boomed out a laugh and spun Derik to see me in the vampire’s arms. He stopped fighting.

Kai’s wolf fell away as he stood up as a human and took in what was happening. Brax did too and moved over to help Kai up. He grimaced and hung his arm on Brax.

We didn’t move. Nobody did.

Until Silas moved past an unmoving Derik to me.

“I warned you, Derik. Same weakness as Grandaddy Achlis,” Silas said, running his talon along my jaw.

Stuck in the grasp of another vampire, my Alphas hurt, manipulated because of me, it would’ve been easy to fall into a pit of despair. To let that hopeless feeling that was hanging on to the edge of my panic in.

But I wasn’t a weakness. I wasn’t just a winter born. And I hadn’t taken on motherhood and being luna of our pack to get taken out in the first war.

I was a survivor.

And I could survive Silas.

Silas rambled about how powerful he was, how much he was looking forward to marrying me, to using the twins as his, to putting the wolves in the dungeons. To his credit, he monologued like a true villain. Full of himself and full of shit.

I was sick of hearing his voice, though. I was sick of seeing his face.

So I drew on the twins. I latched my weak magic to them. I latched my shadows to them.

They accepted me easily into them, and I smiled.

It was seamless, the way our powers formed together.

A surge of strength flowed through me, a powerful surge that had me grinning.

The power filled my body as well as my Alphas did. It waited with me, eyeing Silas’s every move.

We waited until he was close, my hands ready. My claws were long, my body warm and bubbling with the magic inside it.

And then Silas moved in, his smug smirk making me snap.

He was right in front of my face when I put my hands on his chest and let the magic out.

It blasted him back, right into the wall.

Derik sped to the other vampire that had me, holding him back with an impressive strength.

I kept Silas on the wall, the purple magic glowing and stabbing at him over and over again.

He screamed and writhed, crying out as the magic wrapped around his neck.

I felt no weakness. There was no exhaustion or waning.

The twins’ power was more than even I had guessed, flowing through me easily and entirely ready to end the threat. Our shadows moved to support the magic.

“I don’t have an epic monologue about power and the future. All I have is now. And right now, I’m so fucking glad I get to kill you. Because you fucked with my family, my pack, and my children. Enjoy the afterlife, Silas. I hope it hurts like hell.”

I clenched my magic around him.

I tightened it and tightened it as he screamed and hissed, trying to break out. But he couldn’t.

The black ash of his body puffed out of the magic and floated harmlessly around us. There was a lot of it, snowing over the room as it went silent.

The magic whipped back into the twins, my own sinking far down inside me to recuperate. I let out a heavy sigh, then stumbled. There was the weakness.

Kai stepped into me, holding me up. He grimaced, and I laughed tiredly.

“Kai, you’re more hurt than I am,” I said. He shook his head and kept a hold of me. His pain tolerance was insane. I was pretty sure he had a broken collarbone and his entire ribcage was bruised.

It would heal, but it would take a while. He still wouldn’t let me go.

Brax went to the twins and grinned down at them.

“Already saving our asses. These two are gonna be trouble,” he said.

“Three,” Derik said over his shoulder as he eyed the vampire he held.

The vampire had gone still, his eyes wide as he stared at the dust. It landed on his hand as he slowly outstretched it.

“He’s gone,” the vampire whispered.

We all wanted to know what that meant.

The vampire’s mouth spread slowly into a grin, and I tensed. I didn’t like it when vampires grinned.

This one looked at all of us.

“I’m Lucien. I’ve ordered a retreat of all vampires back to our territory,” he said.

I let out the breath I was holding.

Derik let the vamp go.

“Lucien. You’re the new leader?” Derik asked, straight back into political mode as if we hadn’t just won a war by the tiniest bit. I was sure we were done for. But we had done it.

I held Kai, trying not to sag into him, but my bones were jelly in my skin. I had used so much magic, so much shadow.

We’d all used so much.

The wolves howled outside, and I grinned. That was a victory howl.

I felt it in the link. The vampires really were retreating.

“I am. And we have no interest in taking out the wolves. Not with me in charge,” he bowed his head.

Derik eyed him, probably deciding whether to trust him.

“The vampires have caused a lot of damage and death. There must be balance,” Derik whispered.

Lucien nodded, his white hair in a long braid down his back. His teeth and ears were pointy, with his fancy clothes not looking at all like he had just fought in a war.

“I think that is why I was chosen to lead. None of us were strong enough to beat Silas in a challenge, but I did have a different approach to what we should do with the border coming down. If you’ll hear me out?” Lucien asked, eyeing us all.

Derik asked us in the link.

~“Hear him out,”~ I said easily. We hadn’t just fought one war to end up in another.

~“It could be a trap, setting us up to think they’re not going to keep attacking?”~ Kai said, ever the pessimist when it came to vampires.

~“Not having to worry that the twins are going to get taken would be a lot off my mind. I vote to hear him out,”~ Brax said, and that settled it.

Derik nodded. “We need to assess damages and attend to the wounded. We’ll see you tonight at the border clearing to hear what you have to say,” Derik offered.

Lucien bowed. “Thank you, Alphas. Luna. We’ll see you tonight,” he said, then turned away and left.

Derik was with me in a second, pulling me off Kai, who huffed. Derik assessed me, growling when he found the blood on my head. It was long healed, though.

Everything was healed, so I kissed him. “I’m okay,” I whispered, then smiled and snuggled into him.

Brax ran his fingers down my back, then helped Kai hold himself up.

“Let's go check on the city. We need to make sure this isn’t another trap,” I sighed, not meaning to side with Kai. But I had learned that trust was earned, and the vamps definitely didn’t have it.

But I trusted Derik, and I trusted that things couldn’t always be bad. Not when there was a balance to maintain.

We spent the next few hours cleaning and healing. The city was destroyed where the main fights had been, but it was salvageable. Most of the pack that were hurt were healing.

We sent a team out to the clearing to watch over it and make sure we weren’t being set up.

By the time we had to meet the vampires, most of the pack was okay enough to be there. And most of them were just as intrigued as we were to know what the vamps wanted.

The humans had gone home to fix their own villages and grieve. They had lost more than we had, but they had held their own. The beast and Adrenna had helped, but being human had clearly pissed them off.

They had gone back to the villages with the others, Ryleigh and Vaughn leading them. Mom and Galen had stayed behind with us.

We had the twins with us, in a carriage with my mom as the rest of us walked alongside it toward the clearing.

Lucien was already there when we got there. He wore all white and smiled easily.

And he was alone.

I frowned, sending my shadows out to see if there were any others lurking.

“I’m alone. To prove this is not a setup of any kind,” he said, knowing what we were all thinking.

“We’re here. Say what you need to say,” Derik said.

Lucien nodded and held his hands behind his back.

“Silas has been a tyrant for the last few centuries. We’ve been under the thumb of him, and it has been weary on our souls. We are vampires; we crave blood but we don’t crave violence. We live pretty solitary lives as long as our blood supply is maintained.”

He looked at all of us, carrying on his plight. “Silas is dead. We don’t have to do what his will construes anymore. The hive follows me and cannot exact a will that is not my own. And what I want for the vampires? Freedom,” he said.

Kind of sounded like a vampire Derik. I liked him. My shadows didn’t recoil. My magic didn’t burn at my fingertips. My skin didn’t goosebump.

It was as close to trust as I could offer.

“What does your freedom mean? And what is the cost?” Derik asked.

“Fractum broke our territories, but we can still cohabitate. I propose that we have a council. For all the races. Seats for vampires, seats for humans, seats for wolves. Realm decisions, we make together,” he offered.

We all waited in tense silence. The wolves were wary, but I knew Derik was taking it in. It was exactly what he wanted.

“Keep talking, vamp,” Brax urged.

“We’ll keep our territory to the usual boundary line. You keep your city. Humans have the grassland. The forest is shared, the lake is shared. We come and go where we please without killing or harming each other.”

It was a dream. But was it plausible in a realm where a millennia of lore has taught the races to hate each other?

“No violence unless provoked. We create rules for the races that all must follow. We make this a realm worth living in. For all in it,” he said.

“The rogues have the water villages,” I said.

Lucien nodded. “We’re aware. One of the things to discuss as a council. Not because we don’t agree with your decision to help them. But because we were under the impression the deal was only there if they supported you in the war? I don’t see them.”

I pursed my lips. He was right. I frowned and looked to my Alphas. Brax looked the most crestfallen.

“Did you have anything to do with that?” he asked.

Lucien shook his head. “We’ve been watching them too. Silas ordered it as a potential change in plans. But they made no movement to help,” he explained.

I would deal with them later, but for now? We had a council to create. It was a prospect I was actually looking forward to.

“A council. The leaders of each race on it. Rules to abide by. It would be a big change, but we are in agreement, it would be for the better. Our only concern is the bloodlust,” Derik portrayed the pack’s feelings expertly.

Lucien nodded as if he had been expecting that. “Understandably. Which is why we are proposing a volunteer system. We will feed off each other like we have for years with the border. But we would be grateful for any volunteers,” he asked.

Galen growled low, but Lucien bowed his head to him, offering no challenge. “Only for our young. During their teen years, the lust is hard to control. We have to keep them separated, locked up until it passes. We would like to stop doing that with the help of humans who offer.”

He kept talking before anyone could interrupt. “But we understand if this is not possible. In exchange for blood, we would be willing to offer our toxin. It can be turned into weapons like the ones that were used against us today. As a security precaution for the humans,” he said.

That told me everything I needed to know about what they were doing. Lucien really wanted to fix things.

~“I vote yes,”~ I said in the link.

The pack was wary but agreeable, and my alphas? They were on board too. Anything that helped keep us safe was a good thing.

“The wolves are agreeable,” Derik said, nodding in return.

I turned to Mom, who was leaning down to Galen out of the carriage. She eyed Lucien with fierce eyes.

“We would like peace too. And we have volunteers,” she said.

Lucien smiled warmly at her. “We thank you,” he said.

“We’ll discuss the terms, then bind an agreement in blood,” Derik said.

Lucien nodded, and for the next hour, we came up with an agreement that had my heart full.

The rules, the territories, the contingencies, everything. It was everything our realm needed for a fresh start.

My alphas and I, Lucien, and my mom all stepped forward to cut our hands.

Blood met blood as we dripped them onto the parchment Derik had put the agreement on. The second we did, the words glowed on our skin, binding us to the contract.

The words seeped in, and the contract melted away, the blood taking it over until there was nothing. But it was in my head. Every statement and clause was seared into my memory just like the one I had taken at the ceremony that had started everything.

We all took a moment to enjoy the peace that oath gave us.

The second we did, the sky broke. The darkness opened, and the sun poked through.

It beamed down on us, the rays spreading as winter was silenced by the spring.

Flowers slowly bloomed around us, the last of the snow melted away, light filling every crevice.

A fresh morning for a fresh start.

Winter was over. And so was the war.