Anna was expecting Victor to at least ask her not to kill him, but his face was set the moment he saw her. He didn’t say a word as he was pushed down to kneel and although she felt she should say something, she didn’t.Nicolas read the charges and Collin read out the sentence, but all Anna could think about was getting it over with. Collin put his hand over hers holding the sword and she nodded. With her feet feeling as if they were on fire, she picked up the sword. Closed her eyes for a split second, as she held it high in the air and then let it drop down in front of her. Some people gasped and one woman screamed as Victor’s head separated from his body in an instant.As if in slow motion, his body fell to the floor. Anna didn’t look at where his head went as she felt the pain in her feet grows to unbearable levels. Before she fell to the floor, Collin had her in his arms and Nicolas had taken the sword. The body was removed quickly so that nobody else would be upset by the sight of
NICOLAS SIGHED AS HE WALKED into his bedroom. He was expecting his people to be upset about the fact that a werewolf took the life of a vampire, but he had hoped that the fact that she was a hybrid would lessen the blow a little.It didn’t. His people were furious. Most of them saw what Nathaniel created as an abomination and now he had allowed one of those things to kill one of them. He rolled his eyes as he realized how incredibly snobbish some vampires could be. Even after the werewolves won the war, some vampires still saw them as mere slaves created to serve!“Well, that didn’t go as planned.” Beverly sighed as she walked into the room and Nicolas turned to look at her. She was one of Nathaniel’s creations and his people accepted her. Why didn’t they accept others?“Yes.” He sighed, feeling terribly confused.“Nicolas, you are going to have to do something or we are going to have another war on our hands and this time it is not going to be far away. It will be right on our doorst
ELANA ROLLED HER EYES and walked away from Anna, who was not looking happy. She wasn’t sure who she was angrier at. Her mother for blabbing it out to the damn world or her sister-in-law for trying to tell her that there was something wrong with her for not wanting children!If either of them actually took the damn time to listen to her, they might understand. Still, they were usually so busy trying to get their opinion across that they completely lost track of the fact that there was another person at the other end of their tirade and that that person usually had a different opinion. But nooo! With those two, it was just their opinion that mattered.“Elana! Are you listening to me?” Anna sounded slightly out of breath and Elana realized she had been walking faster and faster to try and get away from Anna. She sighed and turned around to look at Anna.“I am, but you have been talking so much that you haven’t given me a chance to get a word in. Anna,” Elana sighed and took Anna’s hands
Nicolas could see how uncomfortable they were all of a sudden and he looked at the male who had been spreading the poison.“Oh? Nothing to say now?” Nicolas smiled, knowing he had just proven one of the biggest points he possibly could. He gave the man one more once over, greeted the others, and walked away knowing that it was probably going to come back and bite him in the butt, that he seemed a little high and mighty, but it also showed that he wasn’t going to back down.He had never thought himself better than anybody else and everybody knew that. It was when the ones who were influenced easily to think otherwise lent out their ears that things around the villa became uncomfortable. He caught sight of Beverly laughing with a group of women and made his way over to the next group of men.This was going to take some manoeuvring, but between him and Beverly they should know where most of their people were standing by the end of the day.ELANA SIGHED DEEPLY, as she rolled out of bed. S
THE MORNING OF THE CEREMONY arrived, and Anna and Leah surprised Elana and her mate with breakfast in bed. They gave them an hour to eat in peace and informed them that they would be back after that hour to take over their room so they could turn it into a beauty salon.Elana appreciated the time they gave them because it settled her nerves enough that she didn’t feel as if she wanted to run for the hills. By the time they climb into bed tonight, she will officially be his mate and the entire pack will know. They already knew, but it felt so much more real knowing they were actually going to have a mating ceremony.Elana tried her best not to complain when the two women returned with an entire army of omegas to turn her into a bride. She really tried, but it was even more difficult to calm down when they were working on her hair, make-up, and nails at the same time! Her mother almost tried to help her take a shower for goodness’s sake! In Elana’s mind, none of this was necessary since
WITH ELANA AWAY ON HER HONEYMOON, things in the pack started to calm down again. Life was returning to normal and Anna could once again focus on her duties as Luna. It felt as if she hadn’t looked at her diary in forever and once she dug into work, she completely lost track of time.Looking up only when she felt Collin’s presence, she smiled and realized she was actually starving. Colling took her hand and they joined the pack for lunch, which was a good change of pace since she also felt as if she hadn’t done that in forever! Life was finally good again and she loved the peace.NICOLAS PACED HIS OFFICE, as he wondered if he should warn Sebastian of what was going on. If he was lucky, which he was most of the time, he could stop his people long before anything happened, but this time things felt different. For the first time in a long time, it felt as if he was on the verge of losing control of his coven.Although a large group of his people still believed in the peace he brought all
THERE WAS NO EXPLANATION for Anna’s sudden condition, and all her tests came back negative. The doctors couldn’t find out what was going on with her. Since she was a hybrid, it made things so much more difficult since the doctors didn’t know that much about vampires, which meant there was an entire array of things that could be wrong and they wouldn’t know.The hours turned into days and still, Anna didn’t get any better. The monitors showed that although she was in a medically induced coma, her body was still reacting as if it was in incredible pain. Sebastian pondered asking Nicolas for the first couple of days, but he didn’t say anything to Collin since he knew how his son felt about the vampires. When two weeks had passed and Anna was still not waking up, Sebastian felt he had no other choice.Collin was furious at his father’s suggestion and Sebastian had to discuss it with him since it meant that the vampires needed permission to come there. Permission had to be given by the alp
ARRIVING AT THE VILLA, Collin could feel the tension in the air. Something was definitely going on, but they couldn’t see what it was from outside. If they went in, they would instantly be detected. At least, Collin was convinced, but his father seemed to think otherwise.Collin could never understand how his father could have such incredible faith in Nicolas. It made no sense to him whatsoever. Stuck where they were, they decided to watch and gather information first before making any moves that could be too dangerous. The first thing Sebastian noticed was that the guards were different.He had seen these guards before, but they weren’t at the stations they were at now. He frowned as he explained to Collin that Nicolas would never have placed these people there. Nicolas chose his people very carefully.“What do you think happened?” Collin felt frustration rise since he could already tell what his father was getting at!“Nicolas has been overthrown as leader,” Sebastian sighed. They b
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