5 = Nathaniel

NATHANIEL

I wake and sit up from another restless sleep. I look around and sigh. I swipe my hand down my face and slip out of bed. I walk into the bathroom and use the toilet before washing my hands and splashing my face. I exit out of my bathroom through my room and over to the balcony doors.

I open them and take a deep breath of the fresh air as I walk over to and lean on the railing. I look out over the castle, over the town and out past the forest to the forbidden mountains and marvel at how much things can change in just a few years.

It has now been five years since the war with the S.D.E. and my father handed over the throne to me…

With the wave of power that Hunter had released that night during the war, we had unintentionally announced to the world that the Lycan King had returned. Something that I now believe would have happened at the coronation with the passing of the throne, not in the middle of war had my mother not nearly died

Then when all the allies had left after the war, King Noah pulled me aside and confirmed that he knew that there was more to me or at least to Hunter and this was the reason behind him always showing me so much more respect than anyone else even from a very young age and now that Hunter had ascended into first Lycan in over 2000 years, he is above even him.

On the evening of my coronation to become the Vampire King, the kingdom was quietly invaded by many WereShifter Kings. Once the Vampire Crowning and Oath had been completed, and the Vampire throne had passed over to me, King Noah joined me on stage. I was completely surprised as King Noah added and performed his own crowning ceremony.

So now not only am I the youngest King of Vampire Kings, I am also the Lycan King, King of all WereShifters.

A few months later Noah invited me to be a witness when he passed the WereWolf Royal MoonCrown Kingdom over to William.

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I turn my thoughts back to family and sigh, losing Riley before and then again during the war was a hard hit to the family especially on Julian, so other than acting as my second, he along with Savannah Riley’s mate and our new official Royal Witch have been tracking down every report and lead we have been getting on Romeo as he continued his attacks on packs, clans and covens.

Unfortunately, most of the reports are either fake, wrong or they get there just a little too late.

However; occasionally some good news can be found in the most unusual places and times as Julian and Savannah found out during the investigation into one of these reports three years ago. Julian and Savannah met up with Carter, Ryker’s Beta who was on an errand for Ryker and had to visit with King William in WereWolf territory.

They had only been there for a few hours when I received a link from Julian to let me know that Beta Carter had found his mate in William's younger sister Claire.

A year after they mated, Carter with Claire by his side, invaded, challenged and won against his father taking over the Rogue Kingdom, allowing his mother, my father's sister, Clamentine to return. Only she didn’t stay within the King kingdom as at the next family picnic day she met Sebastian’s rogue father and they happen to be each other's second chance beloved. She now visits regularly but still lives within the Rogue Kingdom.

Now even though we have an alliance with King Carter and all the rogues under his direction mostly don’t bother us, however; Rogues will still be rogues and we do get the occasional one trying to enter our kingdom or territory from his just to cause a little mischief.

These mischief makers were sent back to Carter with a warning however, if other rogues were caught and didn’t have a good enough reason to be entering then they were interrogated and killed or were killed instantly if proven a threat.

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The thought of Cater and his rogues swings my thoughts to security and how everything has changed. Maya, Theodore’s daughter, was originally going to take the head warrior position standing equally next to Victoria, as Alexander had decided to travel with Victor while he studied Medicine.

I had thought at one stage that they may have been mates as they were inseparable. However, once they returned for the war and Victor found his mate in River, they decided to stay.

With his studying complete Victor then took over Teresa’s place as our official healer, however, some of the females still preferred Teresa, so it was a relief that Kathleen and Prime also studied and became what was known as wandering healers. They were based and called the castle and kingdom home however they travelled the kingdom visiting some of the more exiled clans, offering their services where and when needed.

With Victor staying back in the castle, Alexander having done extra study within their travels decided to stay giving Maya the option to stay in the position she was now in or to move down just a rank or two and become a head Warrior. Maya decided to step aside and became a team leader allowing Alexander to step into the position next to Victoria.

Once Julian and Skylar’s relationship had settled and Skylar had a little more control over her Succubus side, Victoria called us all into one of the smaller meeting rooms and with Griffin by her side informed us, especially Julian and Skylar the truth about how the very first Succubus was made.

I make a mental note to make the amendment to the history we learn within our schools concerning the creation of the Succubus.

I chuckle a little as I think of Skylar and still find it amusing as every mated pair that wasn’t already and was affected that night by Skylar’s new Succubus pheromones ended up pregnant, so we have quite a few little feet and fangs running around the castle, including my new little brother and sister, Hyatt and Dawn.

Now, with Skylar’s knowledge of computers and technology, I assigned her to work with Alexander and Victoria with her focus more on the updated technology side of the kingdom’s security. I allowed Skylar to set up the new surveillance system, with cameras all throughout the castle and at the kingdom's border, something I knew that Riley wanted to and would have done alongside her if he was still here.

It has even proven its effectiveness a few times, giving us the heads up of rogues entering over the borders and the approach of an originally intended enemy, however, they are now a new ally.

I am brought out of my head as a chilled gust of wind makes a shiver run through me, the forbidden mountains coming back into full focus and I know something is happening, that something is coming. Cole and Hunter have been on edge for the last couple of weeks, however, neither of them can tell me why.  

Knowing that there is no way I am going back to bed and getting any more sleep I straighten reenter my room and walk into my closet. I pull out and on one of my casual royal suits and then walk back out onto the balcony back over to the railing and return my gaze to the forbidden mountains.

Now the Forbidden Mountains is a place that borders the Vampire King kingdom and Williams’ Werewolf kingdom. During my studies, I found that most of the shifter species have either their own Royal family or have a governing council which is made up of the oldest of that particular WereSpecies and then there is the High Governing Council which is made up of a King from the most powerful but lower kingdoms.

Now I’m fairly sure that the shifter packs within the Forbidden Mountains have their own governing council to keep them in line and from what my father had told me when I had asked him about them he never really had anything to do with them.

He was a vampire, they were shifters and until he mated with my mother he stayed out of shifter business. Even Noah didn’t have much to do with the individual packs or Prides outside his own kingdom, only doing business with the Royal families or the councils as was his requirement, however, mine as the actual Lycan King was more.  

When Noah told me this I was surprised and after Williams’ crowning, I then spent the next couple of weeks in the archives looking into all the different WereShifter species. I couldn’t believe how many different WereShifters were documented and I was sure that there were many that weren’t.

After Noah had thrown me in the deep end at the coronation I also looked into the history of the last Lycan King which there wasn’t much record of as he was killed over two thousand years past. However, what I did find showed that he wasn't one to cross and he really didn't have much in the way of laws either.

After my coronation and word spread, I received congratulations and acceptance notices from respected and not-so-respected WereShifters. Now the Vampire kingdom ran smoothly thanks to Father and Mother and didn't really need much from me. So I have been focusing on the WereShifters and looking at how everything is run and where things needed work and improvement. 

Over the weeks and then months that followed my coronation with Noah’s help I reached out to the Kings on the High Council and arranged meetings to greet and inform each of them of my intentions now that I was their King.   

However; I had also received disturbing and unconfirmed reports of the governing councils that reside over some of the shifter Prides aren't doing their jobs. That members of certain WerePrides are being abused, sold as sex slaves or worse made to work or sold as breeders.