Twenty-Four

Mircea

“Gods, this place is beautiful.” I said as we walked up to the manor, ivy covering the walls of stone. It was hard to believe that this was a pack house, since I had been led to believe that the wolves lived in squalor. This was the complete opposite of that.

“You should see where Vali and the Core Pack live.” Dallas replied, giving me a side eye. It had been a few days of on foot travel to get here, but it was well worth the wait. Unfortunately there wasn’t any way to track where all of the wolves went, to make sure they all got to safety, but at least I could say that the thirty or so that came with us were safe. Thirty that belonged to this pack, that were currently returning to their home.

“I’m not sure if it could actually top-” I was cut off by the door of the manor opening. Or maybe I was more cut off by my own brain shutting off when I saw who opened it.

Vali.

She wasn’t looking at me though, her eyes were locked on Dallas as she sprinted across the courtyard and tackled him to the ground. No words were spoken between them, but I could smell the joy and happiness they both felt.

On the way here Dallas had told me their history, that they had worked together to get the wolves where they are. That they had been close. I never really got the context for that closeness, but now I saw them just holding each other on the ground, with Vali crying and Dallas soothing her, I think I understood. And so did the jealousy that was clawing at my chest.

The jealousy that everyone around me could likely smell.

“Another vampire?” A black haired wolf’s voice echoed to my ears, and I was about to question who he was when Vali sat up on the ground and looked at him. Finally she had let Dallas go and I could calm the burning in my veins.

“Not just any vampire…” She trailed off as she stood up and moved to be in front of me. “This is Mircea Dracula, the Vampire Prince and my mate. Not that we need to answer to you, Marek.” She said, and I couldn’t help but get caught on the fact she had announced I was her mate. It wasn’t an acceptance, or a claim, but it was an acknowledgement and I would take that. There was no need to rush these things.

“Are you fucking serious, Marek?” A female wolf came out of the manor next, followed by what looked to be the rest of the pack. She had ash-blonde hair, and a scar running down her face. She spoke to Marek quietly, too quietly for me to hear, before she walked over to me and held out her hand. “I’m Lulia, alpha of this pack.” I shook her hand.

“Mircea.”

“While it is nice to meet you and we have a sense of trust already because of the Chosen, we still need to ask you to hand over your moonstone once you’re inside. Just a precaution.” She told me, I nodded.

“Lulia, that doesn’t seem necessary.” Vali argued with Dallas standing by her side.

“Antanasia still doesn’t have hers back. They’ll both get them back once we know they won’t run.” Lulia said. Antanasia? If she was here then I couldn’t risk not seeing her.

“It’s not a problem, I’ll do anything to help gain your trust.” I said, and Vali finally looked at me. Her soft-brown eyes were filled with confusion, but she didn’t speak again on the matter. Instead I followed her and Lulia into the manor, leaving behind the rest of the pack to have their reunion with their lost pack members.

“I’m sure you’re hungry, we can catch up over food.” Vali said once we were inside, and I put a hand on her shoulder to make her face me.

“I don’t get hungry like that, so I’m fine, I just need to talk with you…” I said, she furrowed her brow.

“But you eat food, don’t you?”

“Vampires don’t need food, we eat it because we like the taste of it. Hunger only comes in relation to blood.” Her furrowed brow smoothed, her dark eyes wide.

“I should have known that.” She said, her eyes looking away from me for a moment before they locked back on mine. “Do you need blood? I don’t know where we’d get it from but-”

“Vali, I’m fine. If you need something in your hands to talk though we could maybe make coffee, or maybe Dallas needs to eat.” I said, making an assumption as to why she wanted us to talk over food. I had a similar compunction, to need my hands to be doing something when I had the harder conversations, it helped to ease my nerves.

“All of us are pretty hungry except for the little Prince.” Dallas said as Lulia came over to me with her hand out. Even though it scared me to do so, I handed her my moonstone and made myself vulnerable.

“Everyone else will be going on a celebratory hunt to get some food for tonight. They’ll all wait until tonight to eat.” She explained as she pocketed my moonstone.

“I could do with a sandwich in the meantime.” Dallas said, so we all moved to the kitchen. After Dallas was able to get some leftover pasta in front of him, the questions began.

“What happened?” Vali asked, handing me a mug of coffee and picking up one for herself.

“How much detail do you want?”

“All of it.”

So I explained everything. How I got back to Bran castle and found my father there. How I tried to play the game but realised that I didn’t have players on my side. And then I explained how I ran, how I freed every wolf that was imprisoned.

“Good job.” She said, running a hand over her white hair.

“What do we do now?” Dallas asked the question I didn’t want to voice. It seemed like one that Vali didn’t want to answer either. And she didn’t. Instead, another voice chimed in from the kitchen doorway.

“We go around to each Leader, gain numbers to go against the vampires. The politics are more important than just the numbers we have.” I turned around and saw a familiar face, one that eased some of the ache in my chest.

“Anne.” I said as I walked over to Antanasia, wrapping my arms around her chest. She returned the gesture.

“Hello, Mir.” She replied, her voice just as crystal clear as I had always remembered it. “I’m very glad that you didn’t die.” She said as we pulled away from the hug, and we walked to the island bench together.

“So we’re going to make this a world problem, not just a wolf problem…” Dallas said, regarding the next steps that Anne had mentioned before.

“Exactly. If it came down to just vampires and wolves, it would be easy enough for the wolves to win if planned correctly. Getting the other leaders involved will not only boost our numbers, but it will create a new regime where everyone is involved.” Anne explained.

“What if they say ‘no’?” Lulia asked, which was a very reasonable question.

“I think the only issue we may have is with Lilith.” Vali said, just as Marcy and Jackson walked in. “The way she spoke to Traian at the Summit, it didn’t sit well with me.” She added as Marcy and Jackson walked quietly over to Dallas and each hugged him in turn.

“It didn’t sit well with me either.” I agreed, remembering exactly what the Queen of Demons said after Traian attacked Vali.

Old friend, you need to accept the loss.

“Then we go to her last. Are there any other concerns? Anything to worry about with the other leaders?” Anne asked, I shook my head.

“Adonis will be on our side, the way he reacted to seeing fae involved in the Hunts… there’s no way he would turn us down. Ianthe and Derek might take a little more sway, but should come to our side easily.” Vali said.

“Okay, witches and mortals will be first then. Fae will be third, and then we should have enough allies to force Lilith to join us.” Anne said, and I heard laughter. Jackson.

“Lilith won’t join us, she’s just as bad as Traian, or even worse because she can actually hide her emotions.” He said, shaking his head.

“What if there are rebel demons? Just like there’s rebek vampires? We need to give them a chance, so we’ll still need to go to Lilith.”

“I don’t agree.” Jackson argued with Anne. “Vali, surely you see my side here.”

“I do.” Vali said, looking at Jackson. “I agree with my third. It will likely be too dangerous to approach Lilith. Unless you can come up with a safe way to do so, I’d rather not risk it.” I felt a cold pulse coming from Anne, but she held onto her anger well.

“I’ll make a plan then.”

“Good, I trust you’ll keep us all safe.” Vali said, looking around the circle of us at the island bench. “We’ll leave for Salem tomorrow, speak to Ianthe first. For now, let’s pack and we can plan on the ride over.” Everyone dispersed from the table, but before I could leave, Vali’s hand was grabbing my elbow to turn me around and face her.

“Can we talk?”

All I could do was nod.