RECEIVING THE CALL FROM NICOLAS was comforting, especially now that Anna and Collin were mated and happy. Leah didn’t want anything to ruin their happiness, most of all some obsessed damn vampire. As things were, Anna was nervous about getting pregnant and vampires had interfered in their lives far too much.It was good to see Collin and Anna work together as a team while the pack grew in strength, but Leah was concerned and she would always stay that way. She was a mother and it was in her blood to worry about her children.NICOLAS SLAMMED the phone down after speaking to Sebastian. He couldn’t believe that Victor had actually gone to the girl’s home! After everything they had gone through with Nathaniel, Nicolas thought that his people would be more careful when it came to the wolves, but it seemed as though Victor was intent on making his life difficult.Beverly looked up from her book and frowned and he sighed. He was going to have no other choice and they both knew it. There was
Anna frowned as she looked at Collin. How could he even say that? Okay, so there was the possibility that she could die and that wasn’t the best idea ever, but his mother survived, didn’t she? Collin looked at her for a moment and then stormed out of the room. Anna was so stumped that she didn’t know if she should go after him.“Anna,” His mother’s voice interrupted her thoughts as she was standing looking out of the window. Anna turned to look at Leah, and her eyes filled with tears. She had no idea what to say. This was meant to be a happy day, wasn’t it? Leah pulled the young woman into her arms. She had grown incredibly fond of Anna since the first day she arrived and she would hate to see her go through all of this.“What do I do? I didn’t try to get pregnant, it just happened?” Anna cried and Leah sighed. She knew precisely how Anna was feeling. She also didn’t try, but it was a terrible time and not as happy a time as she had hoped it to be. Being pregnant with a possible hybri
Collin checked with the doctor again after a couple of hours to make sure that Anna was okay. She was still deathly cold to the touch and the doctor couldn’t really give them any answers as to why, but according to their tests, she was fine. She just had to recover after giving birth.At first, Collin didn’t want to see much of their daughter, but when the nurse took her around for the third time, he took her. She looked like a little carbon copy of her mother with her dark hair and bright blue eyes. She was going to be a beauty and Collin could just see how he was going to have his hands full with all the males! That made him realize that he had another problem. His firstborn was a girl. She would one day have to face the same thing Anna did when they became mates and Collin wasn’t so sure if their new pack would like that idea.He knew that he was probably running things far too far ahead, but he couldn’t imagine any of his pack members, Anna’s included, wanting to merge with anothe
ANNA DIDN’T WANT TO LIKE NICOLAS, but he seemed nice enough. Collin’s father seemed to trust him, but she couldn’t help herself. She didn’t trust vampires even if she sort of was one now.“My brother, Nathaniel,” Nicolas sighed as they kept walking. “What he did to Sebastian was wrong. If I had known before he did it, I would have stopped him.” Anna could see from his body language that it was difficult for him to talk about it, but she didn’t interrupt. She wanted to know why he was there and what he wanted with her. “It has created a bit of a leadership problem for both the vampire and the wolf worlds, Anna. I need to know that if I give you an order, you will obey.” Nicolas stopped walking and looked straight at her. She frowned, tilting her head to one side.“And what if your order goes against what I believe or what my alpha has told me to do? No, I can’t make promises like that, Nicolas. I’m sorry.” Anna wondered what the hell he was thinking about asking her something like that
THE LIFE OF A LUNA wasn’t what Anna expected. In fact, it was a lot better. She completely understood now why her mother was such a pain sometimes. Her mom once told her that having a child is like cutting out your heart and allowing it to wander around the world without any kind of protection.Anna wasn’t entirely sure if she felt so overly protective because it was her child or if it was because of her new heightened senses, but it didn’t really matter. She had to keep reminding herself that the only way for children to learn is if they fall and find their own way up again. It was the way she learned. It was how she realized that she belonged with Collin. She had to see the damage she did to herself before she realized what she needed to do.So every time her mother's heart jumped to save her little one, she would hold her breath and clench her hands together and pray for the best. Their little one was a really busy body so the clenching happened a lot as she grew up and started to
VICTOR PACED THE ROOM where the girl was busy screaming and he was glad he found an area that was mostly deserted. The girl could scream until she had no voice left and nobody would hear her. Once he had her, he could move out of the area.His dried-out dinner was lying off to one side and Victor turned his attention away from what was happening inside. Outside of that window was the woman he wanted to make his. She had a life, but he didn’t care about her life. He wanted to be her life. He wanted to be her obsession just like she had been to him. The girl stirred and the moaning stopped drawing his attention from his thoughts as he turned to look at the set of red eyes that were looking at him.The sun had just gone down and it was the perfect time to find her someone to eat and then get out of the city. His arm slipped around her perfect little waist and if he closed his eyes, he could imagine the girl being the one he wanted. As long as he didn’t breathe in her scent. Her hair was
COLLIN PACED HIS office while waiting for the reports from Nicolas’s people to come in. They found the hotel where Victor was staying with a woman and they needed to make sure the woman was still alive. If she had been turned by Victor, she could attack the moment they walked through the door.His eyes kept finding Anna where she stood near the window looking out. Her arms were clamped tightly around her body and she looked just as strained as he was feeling. He knew in his heart of hearts that she didn’t want the vampire, but he couldn’t stop that small voice way in the back of his mind from telling him she might. Unable to stand it a second longer, he walked over to Anna, grabbed her hand, and dragged her off to the bedroom.“Collin! What’s wrong?” She looked a little taken aback as he started to kiss her down the side of her neck while unbuttoning her shirt.“I’m going to nail you to bed to make sure you know how much I love you.” The way he said it as if he was being serious made
ANNA’S PLAN DIDN’T WORK out as planned! Victor grabbed hold of her before she could leave the damn barn and she should have known that he would have some damn plan up his sleeve. If he could get into their pack house undetected like that, he would be clever enough to hold her captive!“Let go of me!” She tried to pull from his grip and he just held on tighter.“NEVER!” His eyes flashed red as he pulled her tightly up against his chest. Something inside of Anna stirred, but she squashed it before it could take hold. Victor tied her up again, and this time made sure she wouldn’t be able to get free when his little friend started complaining. She wanted to know why he wanted Anna and why they had to bring someone along that didn’t want to be there.The girl slipped her arms around Victor’s waist while keeping her eyes on Anna as though she wanted to make Anna jealous or something, but Victor pushed her away. Her attention now fully on Victor, she went off at him.“I thought you said it w
ANNA LOOKED AT HERSELF IN THE MIRROR while her team moved around her to get her ready for the day. Collin cleared his throat and they all moved out of the room discreetly. He stood behind Anna and breathed in deeply.“It’s time, babe.” He sounded so proud that it gave her the last push she needed to get through this day. She stood up and he pulled her into his arms. “I know you say that I don’t need to say this, but I want to say it.” Anna was about to open her mouth and then closed it. “You are a warrior. You are strong and beautiful, and an inspiration to us all. You are breathtaking and amazing. You are the queen and the Alpha of all Alphas, and I’m so damn proud of you that I could just spontaneously combust!” He grinned and she breathed in his scent before kissing him.“Thank you.” She took another deep breath before they left the room. They arrived in front of the huge wooden doors that led to the throne room. Her family gave her a last hug and then left her alone for a moment.
THE MEETING WITH THE purists was thick with tension right from the start. Anna has announced that her little friend had been executed for treason against the crown to show her power. It put the purists right onto their back feet and she could probably have handled things differently, but she wasn’t going to back down. Either they fell in line or she would take care of them as well.She wanted peace for her people. All of her people. If the purists didn’t see themselves as part of that group, they were her enemies. It saddened her to see that most of them were vampires, but it did make sense. They had always been a bit much in her mind. Nicolas sat on the opposite side of the table for once as the vampire representative, but Anna and Nicolas had their discussion before the meeting and she knew where he stood.He had to speak up for his people, but he didn’t necessarily have to agree with their views. Nicolas was merely there to make sure the vampires' rights were protected according to
THINGS AT THE CASTLE were running so smoothly that Anna felt uneasy. Things were running too smoothly. She knew she was being paranoid, but things in the supernatural world were never that easy. There was always someone in the background plotting and when things were running this smoothly, it was because someone had forced it.When things were running this smoothly, it was because someone was trying to hide what they were doing by making you think everything was going so well. Anna asked her assistant to keep her ear to the ground for any gossip, but they both knew that nobody was going to talk openly in front of the girl. Unless … Unless they thought that the girl could be convinced to spy on the queen …“Are you insane?” Collin threw his hands in the air and Anna shushed him. She had just explained her plan to him and he was pacing back and forth in their bedroom. She had been thinking about it all day. “Okay, so are you feeling this way because of your powers or just because you th
AS NEWS OF THE NEW royal councillors spread, Anna was flooded with nominations. She wasn’t just grateful that most of her kingdom seemed to be happy about the new developments, but she was relieved that people seemed to accept her as the new ruler. She was expecting much more resistance.In the back of her mind, however, she kept wondering if she was missing something. Were people just being nice while they were planning something in the background or were they honestly relieved that someone had sorted out the damned council for once? Thankfully, she didn’t have too much time to ponder it all. Life as a queen wasn’t exactly what she thought it could be.Her images of parties and leisurely hanging around a pool were definitely not going to happen. There were going to be parties all right, but they would mostly be stuffy, uptight, official events. As Anna and her assistant walked into Anna’s new office, her assistant started to go through the diary for the week. They had already covered
“CORONATION DAY!” The voice rang through their room and Anna rolled her eyes. Her assistant was far too chipper in the mornings when she woke her up. Anna plastered her smile on her face before sitting up so she could receive her breakfast and, as usual, her hands went straight for the coffee first.Today was coronation day for Collin and their son and it was going to be an amazing day. As her assistant drew the curtains, Anna felt her smile becoming real. It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining and she breathed in the scent of the flowers when her assistant opened the window. Seconds later, Collin’s personal valet walked in with his breakfast and Collin pretended to groan beside Anna.Deep down he was excited. Anna could feel it, but he was pretending to give his valet a hard time. He mentioned something the night before when they went to bed that he just loved seeing the man try and hide his eye roll. Anna was happy that Collin had found someone that basically replaced h
NOW THAT THEY WERE GOING TO OFFICIALLY BECOME the royal family, Anna had a lot to take care of. She had to arrange for their coronation ceremonies, which, although they were going to be a lot smaller, still had things to be taken care of.Anna wasn’t very happy that her family decided it would be best for all of them to move to the castle, but she had no other choice but to agree. It would cut down a lot on her travelling time for meetings. She just didn’t like living in that place. Thankfully, she had Collin to take care of the necessary things to make their wing of the castle a home for them. He made sure it was private enough and that nobody would intrude on their family time. The council wasn’t very happy about the changes to the old castle building, but they were at least satisfied that the royal family was now living where they believed the royal family belonged.A couple of days before the final move, they had the alpha ceremony at the pack house and Elana and the pack started
ANNA ASKED HER FAMILY to meet her in the boardroom. She had just gotten off the phone with the head of the council, who for once seemed elated about her decision. She tried her best to keep a straight face as she walked in with her two assistants behind her and she quickly took a seat, clearing her throat.“I’ve called you for this meeting because things aren’t working out.” Smiling on the inside, she took a deep breath and didn’t look at any of them for a moment. “The council and I have decided that I need more help to run the kingdom.” He hesitated and she could feel Collin growing angry. “We want to make you, Collin, king consort so that you can take over some of the responsibilities.” An array of emotions flashed over his face and a huge grin broke out all over Anna’s.“Our son will become the crown prince and my heir to the throne, and Sebastian and Leah, I want to know if you would be interested in being our first official lady and lord. There will, of course, be some responsibi
ANNA WAS FEELING so much better now that she and Collin were more intimate. The council also came back with a couple of changes to her protocol, but she refused to make them and she felt good about it. They were still trying to push all the responsibility on her, and she wasn’t going to allow that.They finally came back with a date on which they wanted to vote. The council decided since they were going to be a government of the supernatural world, they wanted to do things right and vote for who should be in charge of what. Anna was very happy to hear this and she spent the time at the castle that was needed to arrange the entire thing.She wanted it to be fair, which meant someone had to be in charge that wasn’t involved in the process. Some of the positions were filled before the vote since only one person was nominated for that position. Only two positions were up on the day of the final vote and she wasn’t surprised. The head of the council and the head of the judicial department.
ANNA STOOD AT THE HEAD OF THE TABLE and took a deep breath. Leah had had a brilliant idea while they were working on this presentation and Anna was ready for anything the council might throw at her because of it.“In every part of life, there was a system … An order of sorts. The packs have their ranks that help everyone know their position in the pack. In the vampire world, they don’t have ranks, but there are the leader, the day walkers, and the night walkers. I’m sure that it’s the same for every species, including humans.” Anna had to explain properly or they wouldn’t go for it, but she also couldn’t dwindle on one point for too long or she might lose their interest.“You’ve accepted and crowned me as the queen of everyone, and with that position comes certain protocol. We just have to look at the way I am treated now by the council compared to the way I was treated before all this happened.” Anna gave them a moment to process what she was saying.“When we found out that I had thi