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
THE CLEAR LINK BETWEEN Nicolas and Anna had everybody on edge and without Nathaniel around to explain how the hell he got his experiment to work on Sebastian and Beverly, it was impossible to really know why they were linked.Why was Anna specifically linked to Nicolas and nobody else? The doctors took some blood samples from Anna and Nicolas, but after running every possible test they could think of, there was still no scientific explanation. Collin wasn’t going to say out loud what he was thinking way, way back in his mind. Anna told him that she felt drawn to Victor at some point, but it was never anything like a mate bond.It was some kind of weird attraction that repulsed her more than anything else. When Collin mentioned this to her after she had returned from the hospital, she frowned. She didn’t feel anything like that towards Nicolas.“Collin, I know you might not like this, but Nicolas is like a father figure to me, and that is where it ends. He promised your parents that he
With the spellbook tightly clenched under his arm, Collin followed Nicolas and Beverly as they slowly went through everything that was in the laboratory. Collin had to admit that he was surprised. The place was a lot more sophisticated than he ever expected. They were going to need a truck. The cars they brought weren’t enough to transport this lot back home.If they were ever going to find out how Nathaniel created his father and Beverly, they needed to have everything available for their doctors to go through. Collin started to feel a little overwhelmed. He could only hope that their doctors could figure out what Nathaniel did on the scientific side of things. On the magical side, he didn’t know a witch that could help them.Nicolas was kind enough to suggest someone. Apparently, she helped him to make the daylight rings that vampires used. With all the details finalized, they grabbed what they could and left the laboratory so that Collin could arrange for the truck. He felt as if t
COLLIN DIN’T WANT TO GAWK, but he was openly gawking! He had never been to see the council of supernaturals. He had never been in the building. It was an actual castle! As their car pulled up, he imagined the building inside to look like the images he had seen on television over the years.He was right. The moment they walked into the building, he could see that there was money growing on the damn trees around there! The furniture was exquisite. The paintings looked ancient. Everything was incredible, and not a single spec of dust could be seen anywhere. They were shown into an enormous boardroom and Collin couldn’t help but appreciate the beautiful table right in the middle of the room. What he didn’t see were trinkets.He half expected there to be candlesticks and vases all over the place, but there was none of that.“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the council.” A very handsome gentleman walked in to greet them. He was just as tall as Collin and Sebastian. Collin instantly smelled
IT TOOK THE COUNCIL OVER A WEEK to decide, and just as Collin announced that he was done waiting, the phone rang. It seemed the council took to heart what they told them and they surprised everyone with their decision to intervene. However, they didn’t want Collin and the pack to interfere or even help.“Trust the damn council to make a decision we didn’t damn well think of!” He growled as he paced back and forth in his office. He felt as if the walls were beginning to close in on him and there were just too many people in his office! Anna’s soft hand slipped onto his shoulder and he closed his eyes for a moment and breathed in deeply.“The council did say they wanted to speak to Nicolas about the vampires in the villa, sweetheart.” The council didn’t give them any indication of what they were going to do. They simply asked that Nicolas come and see them. Only Nicolas. They didn’t say it outright, but they didn’t want anyone else there. The way they insisted that it be only Nicolas ma
AS NICOLAS SUSPECTED, everyone was waiting for him in the boardroom to find out what the council wanted. He told them what he told the council and they tried to figure out what the council might want to do with this information.Sadly, after their recent experience with the council, they had to eventually agree that there was no way of knowing what the council was planning. They could only return to their research and wait. They were in the process of systematically working through the grimoire when Collin got the notice from the guards just outside of the small town.The council had arrived. Since the warriors were outside the town borders, they could see time come to a complete standstill. Cars that were driving just a moment before just came to a halt. People who were making their way somewhere on the sidewalks were halted mid-step and many people were silenced in the middle of a conversation.It was as if someone had pressed the pause button on life. The council appeared in the sq
AT THE VILLA, the vampires had received word that the council was coming. Nicolas’s opponent hadn’t bargained on Nicolas going to the council. He had always just talked the people down from the ledge, but then again, the people had never gone as far as having him imprisoned.At first, Nicolas’s opponent was furious that he had escaped, but as soon as he realized the hybrids helped, he was happy about the escape. It showed the people how untrustworthy dear Nicolas was and that he was always in cahoots with the hybrids. They would always come for Nicolas, which meant they liked interfering in the affairs of vampires.The nest stood waiting near the entrance of the villa and he could feel the tension grow with each passing second as the council drove closer. Their security climbed out of the cars to open the doors for them and he found it laughable that the strongest people in their entire world needed security to protect them, but he bit back the laughter forming in the back of his thro
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