MITCH CHESTERMITCH SWERVED INTO the parking lot and looked at the dilapidated building. It was a low, long old bar. Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, he thought of how dangerous this was. And he had left without telling anyone anything. He reached for his phone, wanting to call Draco, but he shook his head.Draco would put on a lot of fuss and spoil everything if he showed up here.Besides, this shouldn't take long, Mitch thought to himself. He would be back before anyone knew he was gone. He got out of the car and headed to the door with purposeful strides. He pushed it and went in, looking around and taking in the sorry state of the bar. The bar was almost empty, except for some leftover drunks from the previous night slumped over their stools and the floor. There was a fat squat man behind the bar, looking bored. Mitch made his way to the counter and sat down carefully on a stool. It was wobbly under his weight."How m' I help you?" The man slurred. He sounded almost
MITCH CHESTERTHEY REGARDED EACHOTHER with mutual respect and apprehension. Mitch stared into the deep soulless eyes of the vampire before him."You punched my bartender," Vorenus said."He shot me," Mitch countered.They remained silent for the next couple of seconds. Vorenus's eyes went to the open wound still bleeding. Any other vampire would be going crazy at the smell of Lycan blood, but Vorenus simply said, "Should you not cover that up?" He gestured with his head. "Meeting a vampire with an open, happily bleeding wound is like playing with fire."Mitch smirked. "And yet, you have not even twitched at the sight. You seem to be in total control."Vorenus chuffed. "I am a sire vampire." His eyes looked. "You didn't seem so thrilled the last time we met, i did not expect you to go hunting for me." Mitch scoffed and said. "Walk with me,” He brushed past the vampire and walked farther away from the border.“you don’t want to be seen with me,” vorenus chuckled. “ashamed now, are we?”
MITCH CHESTERHE WALKED BACK but did not go to where he parked his car, instead, he took the shorter route and came out near the trading center of the kingdom. It was busy, as usual, where women hustled with the truck from the human town for goods and plants they could not get elsewhere.The noise quietened significantly when they noticed that he was in their midst. "Alpha," they bowed. "Your Highness,"As if on cue, he was surrounded by 4 enthusiastic guards, who formed a shield wall around him. Relief was written all over their faces. "Go to the northern border," Mitch said to one of them. "My car is parked there in the snow. Take it to the garage.""Yes, sir!" The guard saluted and marched away.The remaining guards walked with Mitch as they made their way to the palace. As he walked into the palace foyer, he looked around in search of Draco, but the Beta was nowhere to be found. He turned to another guard and said, "I want you to go personally to the house of each senate member,
MITCH CHESTERMITCH INHALED AGAIN to regain his composure before he said, "The vampires are getting stronger, and a war is coming."There was another ripple in the room."We are prepared for a war," Sil said. "We can stay on the bylines and watch them as they have always done. We don't have to get involved..."Some heads nodded in agreement to Silver. They looked at Mitch for him to give his approval, but his lips were pursed."Right, alpha?" Silver cocked her head.Mitch sighed and shook his head. "We can't "not get involved"..." "What? How? Why?" They asked.Mitch sighed. He looked up at Draco for help but the Beta remained aloof and slightly unconcerned. So Mitch knew he had to handle this by himself."Because the war is coming directly to our doorstep," Mitch answered. He nodded in satisfaction at the look of shock written on all their faces. "What the vampire wants is in the kingdom with us.""What is that?" One of the men asked."What it is does not matter," Mitch said. "But we
ANNA KYLIN CHESTER I FELT IT the moment he stepped into the kingdom again. I'm sure Draco felt it top because there was a slump of relief in his shoulders."You feel him too?" Lorna asked and I nodded. He owes us an explanation. A very long one. And while we headed back to the palace, I was expecting him to mind link me with an apology and an explanation of why he left abruptly and where he went to... but the mind link never came.When we got to the palace, where we thought he would be, he was not there, only for Patty to tell us that he said he had a meeting to attend to. I turned to Draco, "Did you know of any meeting?"Draco shook his head. "It would be a meeting in the pack hall..." he said."But aren't you the one that normally calls for them?" I asked.He nodded, a frown appeared on his forehead and he said, "I should have gotten wind of this if he called for the meeting through the mind link..." He stroked his beard."Well, what are we waiting for?" Lorna asked. "Let's crash
ANNA KYLIN CHESTER I TOOK A deep breath and looked across the room again. All the men – and woman – looked at me and waited for what I had to say and to be honest, when I had stood up from my chair with all that authority, I didn’t have anything prepared in my head. “The war is coming,” I simply said, knowing that I was still repeating what Mitch just said. But with the way the eyes of the men shone as they looked at me, one would think that I was reading into their destinies. “And as Silver said, normally, we would sit on the by-lines and watch them eat each other up, except this time… we do not have the luxury to. The war is coming right to our doorstep, and we need every advantage that we have -” “-except asking the werewolf council for help…” Chad Bowman cut into me. He was nudged in the ribs by Lane, who shushed him to be quiet. I smiled grimly and nodded. “except ask the world werewolf council for help…” I echoed. “But we will accept the help that the vampire is offering.” T
VLADMIR HAD LIVED all this time, he was easily the longest-living creature in the world and he took pride in it. There was nothing he had not seen, and his mind had been fine-tuned over the years to notice any small change in anything. So he noticed immediately when there was a change in Vorenus. He could not place his finger on exactly when the change had begun, but he estimated that it was during the time of Alice. Vladimir knew that during that period, he had been too busy with the blonde bitch to pay attention to much of anything else. That must be when Vorenus changed.On second thought, Vladimir stroked his jaw, he knew when it had happened, but he thought that it was normal and would eventually blow over. After all, it was normal for there to be a little jealousy and change when Alice came and Vladimir had most of his eyes on her.Vladimir stood on his roof, overlooking the night skies. He was deep in thought, wondering what he was going to do about Vorenus. He wondered if the
ANNA KYLIN CHESTER"I WAS LOOKING for you," Mitch's voice said. I refused my instinct to turn and look at him. "How long have you been here?" He asked. His voice was closer now.Since I left the meeting, I had been in the woods, enjoying the serene silence of the snow, and wishing my emotions were as straightforward and plain as the color of my surroundings - mostly white for the snow that was on the floor, and in the branches and trees. I watched the snowflakes drift to the floor as I maneuvered through my own emotions. I was feeling confident, but at the same time scared. I was angry at Mitch, but at the same relieved.I remained hidden in the slightly warmer enclosure of wily branches for close to an hour until I heard the heavy footsteps as his feet crunched ice flakes on the floor."Are you okay?" His deep voice swam into my head. He came to sit beside me, gratefully, he didn't touch me. He just sat on the log of wood, looking straight ahead. When I didn't respond, he added, "Yo